BEIJING, April 25 (Xinhua) -- The following is a summary of published science and technology news of China.

MARS ROVER

China's first Mars rover has been named Zhurong, announced the China National Space Administration (CNSA) on Saturday, China's Space Day.

Zhurong is the god of fire in ancient Chinese mythology, which echoes with the Chinese name of the red planet, Huoxing (meaning the planet of fire in Chinese).

Fire brought warmth and brightness to the ancestors of mankind, and fire lit up human civilization. Naming China's first Mars rover after the god of fire signifies igniting the flame of China's planetary exploration, according to Wu Yanhua, vice administrator of the CNSA.

MOON STATION

China and Russia's aerospace authorities have invited all interested countries, international organizations and partners to cooperate in a moon station project.

The announcement was made by the CNSA and its Russian counterpart Roscosmos at a conference for the international moon station in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province on Friday.

In a joint statement issued at the conference, the CNSA and Roscosmos said the moon station will be open to all interested countries, international organizations and partners in terms of planning, design, research, development, implementation and operation at all stages and levels of the project.

SPACE PROBE

China is pushing forward its exploration of a near-Earth asteroid and a main-belt comet with one space probe, said a senior space expert on Saturday.

The mission is to send a probe around an asteroid named 2016HO3 and then land on it to collect samples, said Ye Peijian, an academic of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, at the ongoing 2021 China Space Conference, held in Nanjing.

The probe will then fly back to Earth's proximity and release a capsule to return the samples. After that, it will continue its journey. With the assistance of the gravity of Earth and Mars, it will finally arrive at the main asteroid belt and orbit comet 311P, Ye said, adding that the whole process will take about ten years.

CHANG'E-6 PROBE

China aims to launch the Chang'e-6 probe to collect samples in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon around 2024, said a space expert on Saturday.

Hu Hao, the chief designer of the third stage of China's lunar exploration program, told the 2021 China Space Conference that detailed designing on the mission is in progress.

As the backup of the Chang'e-5 mission, the Chang'e-6 mission would also collect lunar samples automatically for comprehensive analysis and research. Enditem

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