China is on track to launch its first Mars probe around 2020, and plans call for retrieving soil and rock samples from the red planet before 2030, said Zhang Rongqiao, the mission's chief designer. China aims to become the first country to conduct an orbital and surface exploration of Mars in a single mission, he said on Wednesday at an international forum on lunar and deep space exploration in Beijing. The Chinese Mars probe consists of three parts: orbiter, lander and rover. It will carry 13 scientific instruments - seven in the orbiter and six in the rover, he said. The orbiter will collect data on Mars' atmosphere, electromagnetic field, temperatures, surface landscape and other key scientific indicators, he said. The rover, weighing around 200 kilograms, will focus on collecting surface data, as well as testing other equipment to pave the way for future sample retrieval missions between 2025 and 2030. Overall, China's first Mars mission "is going smoothly and all according to plan", he added. Russia, India, the US and the European Space Agency have probes orbiting Mars, but only the US has successfully landed a rover and carried out surface missions. Around 2020, NASA, the ESA and the United Arab Emirates will also launch Mars probes. Before 2020, China will launch an unmanned landing mission to the moon named Chang'e 4, as well as a moon sample retrieval mission named Chang'e 5. In the following years, China will explore asteroids and smaller bodies to understand the solar system's origin and formation, and search for information on possible extraterrestrial life. China also plans to launch probes to Jupiter in 2036 and Uranus in 2046, Zhang said. However, these planets are so far away from the sun that light is too weak to power solar-powered probes. Chemical propulsion systems face long-term storage issues and an even harsher environment in space, he added. "Since Mars is close to Earth and shares relatively similar characteristics, it has become the priority target in deep space exploration," Zhang said. "Not only might Mars serve for future robotic or human settlement, studying its evolution can help us answer some of the key questions in cosmology that can have a profound impact on our life." One example is that NASA has confirmed that liquid water existed on Mars, "so is Mars the past or the future of Earth? Studying how Mars became a mostly barren, arid planet can help with our own environmental protection effort on Earth," Zhang said. custom rubber band braceletsrubber bracelets custom cheaprubber arm bandsfestival wristbandsjordan wristband rubber
An interpretation on Criminal Law provisions was released on Sunday, setting the rules for court trials regarding the crime of compelling prostitution. The Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, China's top court and prosecution agency, jointly issued the legal interpretation, making clear that forcing children under age 14 into prostitution is categorized as a "serious violation" under the crime of compelling prostitution. The stipulation underscored that the severity of the violation does not require multiple children being forced into prostitution. The interpretation stipulated that the act constitutes a serious violation as long as a child under age 14 is compelled to be a prostitute. Under China's Criminal Law, serious violations of compelling prostitution are punishable by 10 years to life in prison. According to an official of the Criminal Adjudication Tribunal No 4 at the Supreme People's Court, the interpretation was issued to protect vulnerable groups such as minors, pregnant women and people who are intellectually impaired. "The interpretation also made a distinction between luring people into prostitution and providing places for or introducing people to prostitution," said the official who did not wish to be identified. Luring a person to engage in prostitution constitutes a crime, and providing places for or introducing at least two people constitutes a crime. The official said organizing more than 10 people to prostitute and organizing more than five people from vulnerable groups or who have venereal diseases constitute serious violations of the crimes of organizing or compelling prostitution. According to the interpretation, those who have AIDS are likely to face severe penalties if they transmitted the disease to others through prostitution when they were aware of their illness, which should be considered as the crime of intentional injury. The document, which will take effect on Tuesday, also stipulated those who lure people into prostitution, provide places for prostitution and introduce prostitution could be convicted of the crime even if they haven't profited from it.
