In this week’s Washington Outlook: companies create new ways to contain potential battery fires; the hunt for new space policy champions; and a recommendation for changing remote-sensing regulations.

In this week’s roundup, the CH-53K is poised for production; an Indian and French company create a joint venture for helicopter maintenance; Embraer pays at least $205 million to settle corruption charges and a U.S. weather satellite breaks up in space.

Nuclear-thermal propulsion could be an option for travel to Mars, but more work is needed.

The Chinese seem to be following in the footsteps of their former Soviet allies, developing a space presence that could lead to low-Earth-orbit commercial possibilities.

Although ExoMars mission's landing demonstration may have failed, the orbiter’s mission to search for life will continue.

The rendezvous and docking of Shenzhou-11, a manned mission launched on Oct. 17, with the Tiangong-2 orbiting laboratory relied on improved technology.

Missions tend to fare better when countries share information and technology. That certainly appeared to be the case last week - from Russia's Soyuz launch , to China's Shenzou mission, Antares's return to flight, and a rocky landing on Mars.

First on the international space station, then in cislunar habitats, NASA is set to begin researching human survivability for travel to Mars.