Sounds like one is planned...

Next year already! It looks like it's been planned for a while then. And so far, China has been pretty good in actually doing what they say the will do. Very interesting...!

During the press conference in BAS it was confirmed that China will send an orbiter around Mars during the Phobos-Grunt mission. And yes, this is one of the things that can put off the launch till 2011.

already discussed in Phobos-Grunt topic two years ago:
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...=1844&st=75

EDIT: for more details about Chinese Mars orbiter check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yinghuo-1

aaah yes I forgot about that. I imagined a stand-alone mission. d'oh

There may be in the future, but the Chinese space program is focused on lunar exploration

Some new details about Yinghuo-1:

Link

Apparently, the Chinese delegation at this year's International Astronautical Congress declared that a wholly Chinese, CZ-3 launched probe is planned for 2013, but it has not yet received go-ahead by the government.

A rather technical paper on YH-1 "An Emulation Research on the Radio Occultation Exploration of Martian Ionosphere" is available (free of charge) on the first 2010 issue of Elsevier's Chinese Astronomy & Astrophysics

Lots of papers (freely accessible but in Chinese) on Yinghuo have been published in the Chinese Journal of Space Science. I think others in the forum may be interested in the paper giving a description and specs of the YH-1 camera.
A few of these are being published in English in Chinese Astronomy and Astrophysics, but for subscribers only (anybody has access to the pdfs? I would be quite interested...).
Note also than an informative paper on YH-1 (in English) and papers on Chang'E 1 and its preliminary results are also available for free on the Chinese Journal of Space Science (vol 28 n 5)

I was finally able to get a copy of the two papers on YH-1 "Scientific Objectives of China-Russia Joint Mars Exploration Program YH-1" and "The Key Techniques and Design Features of YH-1 Mars Probe"
Quite a few interesting details: the camera will have a resolution of 500 m at periapsis and Mars will fill its field of view below 10,000 km. It could be used to image Fobos-Grunt just after separation and will collect and store internally up to 10 pictures on each orbit.
As for the spacecraft itself, its bus can be adapted to a number of missions, and with the addition of a propulsion module it could become a small completely autonomous Mars, Venus or Moon orbiter

I have long been monitoring Chinese technical publications for papers on deep space missions, and this is one of the first I see on an independent Mars mission.
Research on precise design of the Mars probe ballistic trajectory

A short, popular article (in French) on Chinese Martian ambitions
http://www.futura-sciences.com/fr/news/t/a...98/#xtor=RSS-19
two things to retain: it predicts a first independent mission in 2016 and mentions a possible use of CE2 in solar orbit to test long distance communications techniques

in preparation for the flight, the Chinese have put up a PDS-like YH-1 mission science archive
http://demo.bjzxcw.cn/yh2/index.html

I found these pictures on a French forum. I think they were taken at the Asian Aerospace 2011 airshow.

another Chinese Journal of Space Science paper on the scientific objectives of YH-1, in English, for once... A revisit of the phobos events

two fantastic pdfs found on the Novosti Kosmonavtiki forum and presented at the 7th UK - China Workshop on Space Science and Technology
Chinese Mars Exploration Mission Analysis
Concept Research of Mars Penetrator
I just love the Yinghuo with penetrators proposal, and the small lander has that ExoMars-esque look...

a Chinese Journal of Space Sciences paper on Mars airplanes (which are completely out of fashion in the US and Europe) Mission Planning and Modeling Analysis for Unmanned Aerial Exploration Vehicle on Mars

2018 Mars mission

http://www.nrscc.gov.cn/nrscc/kjcg/kjcsjs/...0331_30356.html

Objectives:

Orbiter
• Probing the Martian surface topography and geomorphology
• Probing the Martian physical and atmospheric environment
• Imaging the Martian surface mineral material distributions

Lander
• Probing the landing area topography and geomorphology
• Probing the suprastructure and underground water ice
• Martian surface chemical composition in situ analysis
• Martian surface climate monitoring and scientific research

Mars probe:
Click to view attachment

Deep space navigation optical sensor:
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High-precision dynamic celestial body simulator:
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Deep-space autonomous navigation experimental verification system:
Click to view attachment

Digital small-scale deep-space responder:
Click to view attachment

Lightweight high-gain directional antenna:
Click to view attachment

Do I see aerobreaking down the orbit? It would help probe the atmosphere. (my translator isn't clear on this)

by the way, the probe and its mission look remarkably similar to those in this presentation I posted one year ago. the launch date appears to have slipped to 2016 and 2018. I guess the mission is still in the project phase and has not yet received the governmental go-ahead