BEIJING, March 3 (Xinhua) -- China will gradually open data collected by the Chang'e-4 lunar probe to the world, the country's lunar program chief designer said.

Wu Weiren, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, made the statement in his capacity as a member of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the country's top political advisory body, on the sidelines of its annual session, which opened on Sunday.

Wu Weiren, a member of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), receives an interview ahead of the opening of the second session of the 13th CPPCC National Committee at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, March 3, 2019. (Xinhua/Chen Yehua)

The Chang'e-4 probe made the first-ever soft landing on the Von Karman Crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon on Jan. 3.

Wu said both the lander and the rover have been woken up from a "sleep mode" and are now collecting new data.

Left part of the combo photo shows the lander of the Chang'e-4 probe taken by the rover Yutu-2 (Jade Rabbit-2) on Jan. 11, 2019, and right part shows the rover Yutu-2 (Jade Rabbit-2) taken by the lander of the Chang'e-4 probe on Jan. 11, 2019. (Xinhua/China National Space Administration)

Wu added that China plans to launch the Chang'e-5 probe later this year to collect samples from the moon and bring them back to the earth and to launch a probe in 2020 to orbit, land and rove on Mars. Enditem