China will, after completing unmanned lunar probe, launch manned exploration at proper opportune and will build a moon base with other countries.

This is learned at a symposium on technological innovation in space flight the promotion of the development of the industry.

According to Luan Enjie, chief commander of the moon probe program, human's moon exploration is composed of three stages: probe, landing and stationing.

Now China is at the first stage, that is unmanned landing on the moon. China's moon probe is divided into three steps: a moon-orbiting probe, an exploration based on landing vehicles and returning with samples brought back to the earth.

Luan said, the scientific goal of China's moon probe is to draw a "portrait" of the moon.

The objective at the first stage is to launch a moon-orbiting satellite by the year 2007, which is aimed to obtain three-dimensional images of the moon surface, ascertain the distribution of the 14 elements and substances on the moon, probe the depth of the lunar soil and the space of 40, 000 to 400, 000 kilometers between the earth and the moon.

Ruan held that He3, a rare but important resource on the earth, may be found through the moon probe, which is conducive to solving the energy problem on the earth. He added that preparations for virtual moon observatory are under way in China.