Wu was also positive about the continued progress of Jade Rabbit 2, the rover that is still on the moon, adding that China’s lunar programme had been “carried out very well”.

“For the past few days and nights, we have obtained a lot of scientific data which we have recently been preparing to share with the rest of the world,” said Wu on the opening day of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in Beijing on Sunday.

“Internationally, there have been more than 120 attempts at lunar exploration while we have carried it out only five times … We started late, but the starting point was advanced,” Wu said.

“We have invested less, but this has produced a lot of scientific and technological results. We launched only a few times, but each time was a success.”

China does not disclose its annual space programme spending, but it has been estimated at US$8 billion – far less than the US, which has allocated US$21.5 billion towards Nasa’s 2019 budget.

On Friday, China opened a Mars simulation camp for researchers and tourists in the remote northwest province of Qinghai, China News Service reported on Saturday.

Spanning 32 hectares (80 acres), the base is situated 60km (37 miles) from the town of Lenghu near the upper reaches of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, an arid desert region dubbed “the place on Earth that is most unlike being on Earth”, according to camp manager Gao Junling.

The largely uninhabited area’s terrain is the most similar to Mars of anywhere in China so it was developed for research and tourism purposes, according to Pan Guohui, director of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation’s cultural and creative unit.

“It provides a scientific means for state research on Mars, while at the same time it establishes and nurtures the next generation’s passion for aerospace, deep space exploration and Mars exploration,” Pan told China News Service.

US defence agency report on Chinese space programme is smokescreen to hide arms race, Beijing says

The base is separated into a “Mars landing” simulation and a fully enclosed “Mars camp” area with a mix of tent and cabin accommodation for up to 160 people to have a fully immersive experience of life on Mars.

“The construction style of the camp also mimics the future living environment of humans who move to Mars,” Gao was quoted as saying.

“The buildings include a ‘central headquarters’ and ‘Mars cabins’ to give visitors a sense of immersion and let them experience the challenges of survival.”

Construction on the project began in June 2018 with an investment of 150 million yuan (US$22.36 million), Gao said.

But the “Mars village” was originally proposed by the local government in 2017 as a cultural and educational centre for science, popular science and science fiction, according to Ma Wenwu, a member of the Mangnai city committee, which oversees Lenghu.

High-profile scientist Liu Xiaoqun in 2017 stressed that the base would be “first and foremost a Mars exploration-themed tourist site” and not a serious training ground for future Mars astronauts.

Liu, a specialist in lunar and deep space exploration at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said it was too early to claim the location as a scientific research base since “its surroundings have not been thoroughly analysed for scientific purposes”. But he added that it could be used for certain outdoor scientific experiments.

Other countries have set up similar bases that simulate life on Mars or the journey to the red planet.

In 2015, a study funded by Nasa allowed six researchers to live in a “Martian” habitat in Hawaii for a year, while in 2010-11, a group of volunteers, including one Chinese, lived in a pseudo spaceship in Moscow for 520 days – the estimated time it would take to travel from Earth to Mars and back again.