Space exploration series blasts off at children's book expo

At the Seventh Chinese Children's Book Expo on Wednesday, a picture book series about science and technology and humanity's exploration of outer space, Qu Taikong (Heading for Space), took off in a launch ceremony.

Author Jiao Weixin, a professor with the School of Earth and Space Science at Peking University, has been popularizing scientific knowledge to primary and middle school students for years, and published more than 30 popular science books.

In the three books of the series — The Sun and the Earth, The Exploration of the Moonand The Differences of Terrestrial Planets— Jiao focuses on the construction of the Tiangong space station, the sampling of lunar soil by Chang'e-5 lunar probe and Tianwen 1's landing on Mars.

The books not only depict scenes in space and spectacular views of planets and stars, but also share the history of space exploration, its current development and its future.