The Spirit reached Mars on Jan. 3, 2004, followed by its twin Opportunity three weeks later. Though the duo was expected to work for only three months, they have already functioned five years and may make bigger achievements in the future.

For thousands of years, the human being has passionately pursued the dream of questing for the moon and the outer space, which was reflected in fairy tales, myths or historical events.

A fairy tale said a beautiful lady named Chang'e in ancient China flew to the moon after taking some magic medicine and became the goddess in the moon, while Greek mythology described Apollo, the sun god, as someone riding his golden carriage and cruising in the heaven.

Rockets and Jets by U.S. author Herbert S. Zim said a minor Chinese official, named Wan Hu, conducted an imaginative experiment in an attempt to explore the mysterious space by sitting on a chair propelled by 47 rockets early in the 16th century.

Though Wan, also holding a big kite in each hand, was killed by explosion in the test, his genius and courage have inspired later generations of space explorers.

Mankind made a dramatic breakthrough when U.S. astronaut Neil Alden Armstrong landed on the moon on July 21, 1969. Walking on the moon, he said, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

In recent years, mankind is carrying out a series of programs to explore Mars, which is named after the Roman god of war, and is the nearest planet from the earth.

In June, 2003, the European Space Agency (ESA) successfully launched the "mother ship" Mars Express, but the Beagle 2 landing spacecraft lost all contact with the earth after its separation from the Mars Express when they were reaching Mars.

NASA, or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, launched the Mars Lander in August, 2007. The lander did find evidence of water on Mars in July, 2008, which is of great significance for studying the origin and evolution of life there.

China and Russia are scheduled to launch a joint Mars exploration mission this year. Meanwhile, the United States, the leading country on Mars exploration, will launch next Mars mission, Mars Science Laboratory, in the fall of 2011. Indian Space Research Organization is going to send out an unmanned Mars rover in 2013. ESA plans to launch its another Martian rover ExoMars in early 2016.

With the ever-increasing population and natural resources on the earth heavily consumed each day, mankind apparently has to explore other planets to enlarge its living space.

In the future, Mars exploration may give answers to environmental, living and developing problems facing the human being.

Mankind's dream and passion to explore Mars and the outer space will never cease, and man surely will understand the mysterious universe better and better.

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