Earth (地球) is a planet and Mars (火星) is too. People, animals and plants live on Earth, but can they live on Mars? Earth has water. But what about Mars?

People want to find out about other planets like Mars. So Robot Landers have been made (被制作) to help them. This Lander was one that went to Mars. It has a long arm with a camera on it.

The Lander is inside this spacecraft (宇宙飞船). The spacecraft blasts into space. It will take a long time to get to Mars. When the spacecraft is there, the Lander comes down to land on Mars.

The Lander is on Mars. Mars looks like a desert on Earth but it is very cold. Now the Lander has a job to do.

The Lander digs (挖) in the ground to get soil (土壤). People on Earth look at the soil. What is the soil like? What is under the soil? Is there water here? The Lander helps people on Earth to find out.

The sun is going down. Night will come to Mars. The sun helps the arm on the Lander to move. When there is no sun, the Lander will not work.

People can go into space. They can walk on the moon, but can they go to a planet like Mars?

Robot Landers like this one can help people find out.

The planets and stars are very far away from us. For many years, people have wanted to visit space and the moon. People who go into space are called “astronauts”. The first astronaut went into space about 40 years ago, and some people went to the moon about 8 years later.

Space is amazing. However, it is dangerous in space. Small pieces of rock fly past very quickly all the time. There is no air, so there are no animals or plants. Astronauts have to take air, water and food with them. In space, you can pick up very heavy things easily, but it is difficult to eat and drink. This is very strange for astronauts. For sleeping, astronauts spend the night floating (漂浮) in a sleeping bag.

Besides working, eating and sleeping, what do astronauts spend a lot of time doing in space? It’s exercise. If they don’t take exercise, their bodies start losing bone and muscle(骨骼和肌肉) which makes them weak.

It isn’t good for our bodies to be in space for a long time. Astronauts don’t usually stay in space for very long, but some have stayed for a year without any problems. Perhaps in the future we will all visit the moon or have holidays in space.

Nowadays, a growing number of countries realize the importance of space and pay more attention to their space programs. Space exploration（探索） around the world has entered a new stage of rapid development that will have great influence on human society. Here is how China plans to take actions on space programs.