[pauldino]

I believe the Chinese mission actually does have more mass overall - although the rover is a lot smaller, they're also sending a large orbiter and a landing platform to deliver the rover to the surface.

[shadowgovt]

That's cool. If NASA and CNSA can work the details out, they can share comms; it's always good to have more redundant comms solutions in orbit.

[pauldino]

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on who you ask) NASA is very restricted in what it can do with China, so probably not. But NASA does utilize ESA's Trace Gas Orbiter in addition to their own Mars orbiters for relay operations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_exclusion_policy_of_NA...

[billfruit]

I heard CNSA is also planning to use an ESA orbiter as backup comms relay, besides using the ESA ground tracking stations as well.