China Details Mars Exploration with Russia

China and Russia have joined forces in exploring mars and one of its moons in 2009. Hu Jintao, the Chinese president visited Moscow to sign an agreement between China and Russia. This agreement will increase cooperation between the two countries as well as enhance technology and exploration, in hopes of competing with the United States, which currently takes the lead. The plan is to launch a Russian Rocket lifting a Chinese satellite and Russian exploration vehicle to survey Mars and one of its moons phobos. This collaboration of a large space program will expand new technologies and discover new features in Mars and moons. Russia still holds more experience than China in terms of exploration. However China's wealth and technology increases combined with Russia's experience will prove difficult for the United States to keep up with exploration progress.