Design of an international collaboration mechanism for space exploration

In the three years since the Vision for Space Exploration announcement, NASA has engaged other space agencies in informal discussions on goals, capabilities, and timelines for future space exploration, particularly focused on the Moon. Until recently, most of these multilateral discussions have been organized as one-time activities, occurring as conferences, workshops, and informal meetings. A multilateral international collaboration mechanism for space exploration can formalize the series of informal discussions that have occurred among the space agency community in the past three years. A more formal mechanism can give structure and regularity to nascent international collaboration efforts. This research designs an international collaboration mechanism by copying successful features from existing international collaboration mechanisms. The mechanism also meets a set of desirable criteria for participation by all the major space powers. These criteria were developed by synthesizing information from interviews of space agency and government representatives. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.