International co-operation will be a key component of the Aldridge Commission's report on implementing US space policy, which is expected to be finished next week, writes Rob Coppinger.
Two models of co-operation are to be outlined in the 100-page report that is the culmination of three months of hearings. One model involves nations conducting independent, probably robotic, missions and providing the results, for example data for possible lunar landing locations, to a common exploration database. The second model is similar to the International Space Station (ISS) project where each nation contributes something specific.
A US space programme source says: "I suspect the [co-operation that will be adopted] will be with the European Space Agency [ESA] and the Japanese Space Exploration Agency launching their own missions and also participating in the manned lunar and, eventually, Mars missions."
ESA's head of space exploration, Daniel Sacotte, told the Commission's final hearings in early May, in New York, that ESA wants improved co-operation on the ISS and that the US space vision should be international.
Speaking later to Flight International, Sacotte said that whether the destination is the Moon or Mars is not for the USA to decide and that the methods for implementing the new space vision should be discussed.
He says: "There is no diversity in the world if we say now the goal is to go to Mars. How it is implemented requires a common way."
Sacotte had another chance to convey his views to the US government in May. He declined an invitation to speak to the US Senate before the Commission hearing. He says he would be happy to attend Congressional hearings on the Aldridge report's recommendations, if invited.
Source: Flight International
