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While the Tianwen-1 orbiter will dispense commands to the Zhurong rover, the Mars Express orbiter of the European Space Agency will serve as a backup.

Wikipedia

Since Mars Express normally communicates using NASA's Deep Space Network, would the latter also be used in the contingency described above?

DrSheldon
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I am almost certain the answer is not just no but is on the level of the underworld freezing over level of no. Congress has forbidden NASA from providing any support for China's space program.

Shortly after NASA landed men on the Moon in 1969, the Soviet Union congratulated NASA for its Moon landing. There was a hidden message in this congratulation: "We monitored your communications. We know that you did land men on the Moon." NASA congratulated China shortly after China successfully landed the Zhurong rover on Mars, with the same implied message.

It takes an hour to prepare for communications between a remote vehicle and a Deep Space Network site. The analog equipment must be tuned to the exact frequency used by the remote vehicle, a bit synchronizer must be set up to recognize the bit encoding protocol used by the remote vehicle, and the frame synchronizer must be set up to use the frame encoding protocol used by the remote vehicle.

NASA knows the Tianwen-1 orbiter downlink frequency, and probably knows the bit encoding and frame synchronization mechanisms as well. NASA would not have congratulated China as quickly as it did if NASA was not monitoring communications from Tianwen-1. Imagine now that ESA comes to NASA with a DSN request for a comm link with a vehicle orbiting Mars that does not match any of the frequency / bit encoding / frame synchronization characteristics of any ESA vehicle orbiting Mars but perfectly matches the characteristics of the Tianwen-1 orbiter. NASA will have no choice: They will have to reject this request.

NASA is not stupid, nor is ESA, nor is China. The scenario invoked in the question will never happen, at least not until the US Congress loosens the restrictions on NASA.

David Hammen
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    First sentence made me laugh. Your "listening to China's communications" scenario might actually explain some of the undocumented "testing" codes used by the DSN. – DrSheldon Jun 23 '21 at 05:46
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    If the Mars Express orbiter would be used as a backup, would the DSN need to use another configuration than they would normally use for ME? I think the question becomes "does NASA know (and care) what data is being sent down by Mars Express, or does it just forward it to ESA?" – Jan Fabry Jun 23 '21 at 09:23
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    Since Tianwen-1 would be in contact with the ESA orbiter, couldn't the ESA orbiter simply repackage all the received data into "ESA looking" packages before being sent through the DSN? Basically the Mars Express Orbiter would kind of act as a VPN for Tianwen-1, preventing NASA from seeing the exact contents while then the ESA groundstation would forward the data/commands from the Chinese groundstation? – wawa Jun 23 '21 at 21:11
  • I don't understand your point about the moon landing. Wasn't the Apollo 11 landing widespread knowledge? Everyone in the US was following it live. – Barmar Jun 23 '21 at 21:39
  • @Barmar not to open the whole conspiracy theory thing, but 99.99% of people were watching a broadcast that was given to networks by NASA or a government agency to rebroadcast - very very few people were in a position to directly receive the transmissions from the moon on their own equipment and verify that that was what was actually happening. The Soviets were, and thats the implied message - "we can listen to your space comms". – Moo Jun 23 '21 at 22:33
  • @Moo Even without the video transmission, Walter Cronkite would have announced the moon landing for everyone. – Barmar Jun 23 '21 at 22:35
  • @Barmar based on information he was given, he couldnt independently verify it for himself. Thats the part you are missing, independent verification. Lots of people were asking for it when the Chinese announced their Mars lander was successful, and NASA basically gave it with their congratulations. The Soviet Union doing the same for the moon landings is a huge thing, while at the same thing confirming to NASA the technical ability of their Soviet counterparts. – Moo Jun 23 '21 at 22:38
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    @Barmar these days, the situation would be a little different because you have loads of amateurs with dishes of all sizes doing radio-astronomy, many of which could probably pick up a transmission from the moon. From Mars however, you need more capability, so fewer (or perhaps none) amateurs would have the ability. – Moo Jun 23 '21 at 22:40
  • @Moo OK, it still seems like a bit of a stretch, but I guess that's how international relations work. – Barmar Jun 23 '21 at 22:40
  • @Moo Hijacked space data, notable instances of recovering images or other goodies from someone else's space mission? six answers so far, there's room for more! – uhoh Jun 25 '21 at 00:17