The Chinese Academy of Space Technology has come up with a plan for the country to independently conduct a Mars orbiting exploration. Xinhua News Agency said the plan is based on the platform for China's Chang'e I, an unmanned lunar orbiter that was successfully launched in 2007. It said the plan, which will tap space technologies for the country's moon exploration programs, has set the earliest launch date in 2013. Meanwhile, China's first Mars probe Yinghuo-1 is schedule to be launched on a Russian carrier rocket in November 2011. The Mars probe, designed for a two-year life span, will try to discover why water disappeared from the planet and explain other environmental changes on Mars.