Issue 12  May 20th 2016

SpaceX Is Already Working on Legal Approval for Its 2018 Mars Flight

The legality of space colonies is very much up in the air right now. Though SpaceX’s first Red Dragon mission will not set up a human settlement, it’ll likely carry some infrastructure that Elon Musk hopes to use for a human settlement in the future.

“[Countries] weren’t thinking about commercial companies when the treaty was passed, but it’s very clear that they have responsibility for the people and companies who come from their countries,” Rosanna Sattler, a space lawyer who has studied the legality of settlements told me at the time. “It governs private and public endeavors.” Sattler says that, most likely, countries that are party to the treaty will sign a “Memorandum of Understanding” with each other that will allow for the eventual colonization of space.

It seems unlikely that the treaty will prevent any future SpaceX mission to Mars. The United States has shown in the past that it doesn’t particularly care about the treaty; last year Congress passed a law making it legal for companies to mine asteroids, which seems to be in strict defiance of the treaty.

SpaceX’s authority will be looked at under a new framework the government is working on for “nontraditional” commercial activities. This new framework will fall under the Department of Transportation (which the FAA is a part of). He said the agency will grant authorization for a mission “if it were consistent with international obligations, foreign policy, and national security interests of the US and US government uses of outer space.”

Read the full article | Photo from SpaceX

How Elon Musk exposed billions in questionable Pentagon spending

Elon Musk’s SpaceX had to sue before it got access to the Pentagon — but now, as it promises to deliver cargo into space at less than half the cost of the military’s favored contractor, it has pulled back the curtain on tens of billions in potentially unnecessary military spending.

The entrenched contractor, a joint operation of Boeing and Lockheed Martin called the United Launch Alliance, has conducted 106 space launches all but flawlessly, but the cost for each is more than $350 million, according to the Government Accountability Office. SpaceX promises launches for less than $100 million.

Yet despite the potentially more cost-effective alternative, taxpayers will be paying the price for ULA’s contracts for years to come, POLITICO has found. Estimates show that, through 2030, the cost of the Pentagon’s launch program will hit $70 billion — one of the most expensive programs within the Defense Department. And even if ULA is never awarded another government contract, it will continue to collect billions of dollars — including an $800 million annual retainer — as it completes launches that were awarded before Musk’s company was allowed to compete.

Read the full article | Photo from David B. Gleason

Here’s what Elon Musk plans to do with the 3rd SpaceX landed rocket

SpaceX has already said that it doesn't plan on relaunching the first Falcon 9 it successfully landed. Instead, SpaceX plans to display it at their headquarters in Hawthorne, California, following inspection.

Musk recently tweeted that the most recent rocket took too much damage during reentry to be relaunched, so instead that rocket will be used for ground tests. That leaves us with the rocket from the first barge landing on April 8. Musk has announced that we can expect to see SpaceX reuse this rocket as early as May or June.

Read the full article | Photo from SpaceX

Ancient Mars Was Wet and Wild

This article was shared on Twitter by Elon Musk.

Not only was Mars once a wet planet. New evidence, published today in Nature’s Scientific Reports, paints a picture of violent tsunamis as well. Tsunamis on Earth are often caused by earthquakes on the ocean floor or similar events. To an extent, that’s also what happened on Mars during both its violent events. But the initial culprits in this case were giant meteorites smacking the planet. The first meteorite, which delivered a head-on blow to Mars about 3.4 billion years ago, created a 30 km (18.6 mi) impact scar while catapulting waves hundreds of meters high across vast distances.

The proof — according to lead author Alexis Rodriguez , a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute — is in a series of strange water erosion lines. They don’t quite look like a shoreline — and indeed, these same lines were used to initially cast doubt on the theories of northern hemisphere oceans. But seen in a different light, they’re where a giant wave smashed into terrestrial portions, dragging away a backwash of rocks, boulders, and other geologic features.

Read the full article | Photo from Wikimedia Commons