Space‑Phase Taxes Without Drag: Redshift, Free Propagation, and Why Orbits Survive

Space‑phase must be nearly lossless for bound mechanical systems, or planetary orbits,galaxies, and atomic structure would decay on short timescales. At the same time,free‑propagating radiation across cosmological distances clearly exhibits redshift andtime dilation. This paper frames that contrast in SP3 terms: space‑phase does not imposeviscous drag, but it does impose cumulative mode‑rescaling taxes on free‑streamingexcitations. Light, gravitational waves, neutrinos, and other unbound propagating modesgradually re‑match to the evolving characteristic scale of space‑phase, appearingobservationally as redshift and energy dilution. Bound systems are protected by localspace‑phase stiffness and memory. This interpretation preserves all standard observationswhile supplying a substrate‑level mechanism that distinguishes mechanical drag fromcosmological mode taxation.