NASA and the Private Sector - Page 53

Early Tuesday morning, the California firm SpaceX will launch a resupply mission carrying 5,000 pounds of food and experiments to the International Space Station.

But just as important as the stuff going up is what comes back down.

The rocket's massive first stage — a metal tube 14 stories high — won't just drop into the ocean as other rockets do. Instead, it will deploy fins that will allow it to maneuver as it falls. It will then fire its engines in order to gently settle onto an unmanned barge in the Atlantic.

"If we can recover the stage intact and re-launch it, the potential is there for a truly revolutionary impact," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in April at the National Press Club. Musk said that recycling the rocket stages could cut the cost of space flight by a factor of 100.

This time, SpaceX has deployed a floating drone barge. The rocket will attempt to touch down on the barge, where it will be recovered. Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX's vice president for mission assurance, says the tricky part will be hitting the relatively small barge.

He puts the odds of success around 50/50.

The Mars transport system will be a completely new architecture. Am hoping to present that towards the end of this year. Good thing we didn't do it sooner, as we have learned a huge amount from Falcon and Dragon.

Our spacesuit design is finally coming together and will also be unveiled later this year. We are putting a lot of effort into design esthetics, not just utility. It needs to both look like a 21st century spacesuit and work well. Really difficult to achieve both.

The dream of sending a manned expedition to Mars has long been with us. Yet, despite periodic enthusiasm, it seems we have made little progress. Until now. Our understanding of the planet’s environment (past and present) increases almost daily. Just recently, we tested a rocket ship capable of taking people to Mars. And a surprising number of people would volunteer to go to Mars, even if it meant not returning. (Elon Musk is fond of saying that he would like “to die on Mars, just not on impact.”) As engineering and other hurdles fall, it is time to address one of the most pressing—and yet least discussed—problems facing such a journey, one that could undermine it almost from the beginning.

Of course, I’m referring to taxes, and in particular to just how Marstronauts and ultimately Martians (assuming they stay) will be taxed on the income they earn while en route to, and living on, the Red Planet. Failure to address this important question now could lead to Martians renouncing their U.S. citizenship, or worse. Let me explain.

First, the tax law. Unlike most countries, the United States currently employs a “worldwide” system of taxation, under which it taxes all income earned by U.S. citizens and residents, regardless of where it is earned. “Nonresident aliens” pay taxes only on their U.S.-sourced income.

On January 11 2015 03:44 JumboJohnson wrote:
Seems strange, how is it using up hydraulic fluid? Wouldn't that be in a closed system?

On January 11 2015 03:44 JumboJohnson wrote:
Seems strange, how is it using up hydraulic fluid? Wouldn't that be in a closed system?