China showed off its Mars spacecraft during a landing test last week in the northern province of Hebei. China is planning to send a lander and rover to Mars next year to explore parts of the red planet. The United States and European space agency are also sending rovers to the planet in 2020, and the United Arab Emirates plans to launch an orbiter. Zhang Kejian is head of the China National Space Administration. Before the landing test, he told foreign diplomats and the media that China’s Mars Mission is on schedule. Officials say the Mars lander successfully passed a hovering-and-obstacle avoidance test. The landing area had small piles of rocks on the ground, similar to what the uneven surface on Mars is like. The lander will have to move around on this kind of surface when it gets to the planet.