Mars Exploration: An Approach for International Partnerships with Emerging Space Nations

NASA, ESA and JAXA have a strong history of successfully collaborating with other countries in space science and exploration. Payload science teams often offer opportunities for international members, and the established agencies regularly contribute instruments and subsystems to each other’s missions. These partnerships can enhance scientific outcomes, promote interoperability, and leverage global capabilities. For emerging space exploration nations such as Australia, designing and conceptualizing an end-to-end exploration mission is currently out of reach, and identifying suitable partnership models with established agencies to lower the barrier to entry can be challenging. However, many emerging space nations, including Australia, have identified specific technological strengths that could meaningfully contribute to international space science and exploration efforts. In 2018, Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO identified several key technologies from terrestrial sectors that could be applied to planetary missions, including resource characterization and manipulation, and autonomous systems. Through the International Mars Exploration Working Group (IMEWG), CSIRO has worked to demonstrate these technological strengths to NASA, ESA and JAXA and collaborate on their applicability to space exploration. In order to effectively utilize these technologies and focus future developments, a reference mission architecture was required to provide a strategic framework with high-priority Mars science objectives. In response to this need, teams from CSIRO, NASA, ESA, and JAXA collaboratively developed a process based on design reference missions (DRMs) to identify the underlying science and engineering required to drive coordinated efforts toward a coherent and specific space application. The paper describes the key steps in this process, which include: 1. Identification of national technology strengths in an Australian context 2. Interaction with established agencies to align technologies with science and exploration goals 3. Results of the DRM study performed in collaboration with Team-X at NASA JPL For emerging space nations, collaboration can bring Mars exploration closer. The methodology represents an innovative approach to fostering meaningful partnerships between established and emerging agencies to achieve significant scientific impact in future planetary missions.

美国国家航空航天局（National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA）、欧洲空间局（European Space Agency, ESA）与日本宇宙航空研究开发机构（Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA）在空间科学与探测领域与多国开展成功合作的历史积淀深厚。有效载荷科学团队通常会为国际成员提供参与机会，上述老牌航天机构亦会定期为彼此的任务贡献仪器与子系统。这类伙伴关系能够提升科学产出、促进系统互操作性，并整合全球航天能力。
对于澳大利亚这类新兴航天探测国家而言，独立设计并概念化一套全流程探测任务目前尚无法实现，而寻找到与老牌航天机构的适配合作模式以降低任务入门门槛，往往颇具挑战。
不过包括澳大利亚在内的诸多新兴航天国家，已具备可切实助力国际空间科学与探测工作的特定技术优势。2018年，澳大利亚国家科学机构——澳大利亚联邦科学与工业研究组织（Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, CSIRO），识别出多项可应用于行星探测任务的陆地领域关键技术，涵盖资源表征与操控、自主系统等方向。
通过国际火星探测工作组（International Mars Exploration Working Group, IMEWG），CSIRO已向NASA、ESA与JAXA展示了上述技术优势，并就其在空间探测场景中的适用性展开合作研究。
为有效利用这些技术并聚焦未来发展方向，亟需一套参考任务架构，以提供涵盖高优先级火星科学目标的战略框架。
为响应这一需求，来自CSIRO、NASA、ESA及JAXA的团队联合开发了一套基于设计参考任务（Design Reference Missions, DRM）的流程，用于明确驱动协调工作以实现明确且具体的空间应用所需的核心科学与工程需求。
本文阐述了该流程的关键步骤，具体包括：1. 结合澳大利亚国情识别国家技术优势；2. 与老牌航天机构开展对接，使技术与科学及探测目标相匹配；3. 与NASA喷气推进实验室（Jet Propulsion Laboratory, JPL）的Team-X团队合作开展的DRM研究成果。
对于新兴航天国家而言，合作可使火星探测的目标更趋触手可及。该方法为推动老牌与新兴航天机构建立富有实质意义的伙伴关系、在未来行星探测任务中取得重大科学突破提供了创新路径。