After putting people into orbit and landing a probe to the Moon, China continues to be in space ambition with the next destination: Mars.

China, along with the United States and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), are the three nations that will join the mission to conquer the red planet this month, around the time Mars is closest to Earth.

Beijing's space program in recent years has made great strides in the race against the US.

After much time cherishing and preparing, the mission to explore the red planet Beijing is ready to start.

The probe will fly into orbit of Mars, land on the planet's surface and release a small, remote-controlled robot to do research.

This is not the first time China has tried to reach Mars.

After the failure 9 years ago, Beijing decided to complete the mission itself.

The military is China's space program management agency, providing limited information on missions.

The robot will explore the surface of Mars in three months, according to Sun Zezhou, chief engineer of the probe.

Prior to this mission, China has twice sent probes to the Moon, including Jade Rabbit 1 and 2, in 2013 and 2019, respectively.

"The Jade Rabbit robots are very suitable for exploring Mars, when the planet has similar terrain," said Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

But being far away from the Earth means communication will be slower and risk problems will increase with such a long journey, according to McDowell.

If this July mission is successful, it will mark a significant step forward for China's space program, because conquering Mars is considered one of the most difficult challenges, according to Dennis Normile, ed.

Unlike the Moon, Mars has an atmosphere, so the probe needs to be protected from the heat generated during landing.

Only 10 of the 18 missions that landed on the surface of Mars were successful and 9 of those 10 missions belonged to NASA.

The scientists of Thien Van 1 said they were not authorized by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) to talk to the press about information related to the plan.

CNSA said landing safely on the Martian surface is not their only goal.

Thien Van 1's probe will study the magnetic field and atmosphere of Mars.

Dean Cheng, a China policy expert at the Heritage Foundation, an American research institute, said that in addition to demonstrating technological prowess, China wants to contribute to the "global pool of knowledge".

"Beijing believes that big powers must have scientific power," Dean Cheng said.

Thien Van 1 is not only China's mission to pursue this great ambition.

CNSA officials said that if Thien Van 1 and Chang'e 5 were successful, China could try to bring samples from Mars to Earth by 2030.

Beijing has poured billions of dollars into its space program to keep pace with the United States, Russia and Europe for years.

Beijing also launched a series of satellites into orbit, completing the satellite "constellation" in June to set up its own Beidou navigation system, competing with the US GPS system.

The Asian power also plans to set up a space station by 2022, giving China a permanent foothold in orbit, and China also sets a higher target when it hopes to become the second nation to send people.