City of the Future: http://www.popsci.com/futurecity/plan.html

3D Guide to the Milky Way: http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/milky-way/milky_way.html

ITER



ITER (Latin for "the way") is a critical step between today’s studies of plasma physics and tomorrow’s fusion power plants producing electricity and hydrogen. An unprecedented international collaboration of scientists and engineers led to the design of this advanced physics experiment. Project partners are China, the European Union, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States. ITER is technically ready to start construction, with experimental operations planned to begin in approximately 10 years.


NSTX



NSTX (the National Spherical Torus Experiment) is an innovative magnetic fusion device that was constructed by the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) in collaboration with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Columbia University, and the University of Washington at Seattle. It produces a plasma that is shaped like a sphere with a hole through its center, different from the "donut" shaped plasmas of conventional tokamaks. This configuration may have several advantages, a major one being the ability to confine a higher plasma pressure for a given magnetic field strength, which could enable the development of smaller, more economical fusion reactors.


NCSX



NCSX (the National Compact Stellarator Experiment) will be the centerpiece of the U.S. effort to determine the attractiveness of the compact stellarator as the basis for a fusion power reactor. Magnetic fusion energy researchers must find the best shape for a hot reacting plasma and the magnetic fields that hold it in place. Dramatic advances in magnetic confinement physics and computational capabilities have resulted in this promising new configuration. NCSX is being built at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory. First plasma in NCSX is scheduled for 2009.


DIII-D



The DIII-D tokamak operated by General Atomics in San Diego, CA is the largest magnetic fusion facility in the United States. DIII-D provides for considerable experimental flexibility and has extensive diagnostic instrumentation to measure the properties of high temperature plasmas. It also has unique capabilities to shape the plasma and provide feedback control of error fields that, in turn, affect particle transport and the stability of the plasma. In addition, DIII-D has been a major contributor to the world fusion program over the past decade in the areas of plasma turbulence, energy transport, boundary layer physics, and electron-cyclotron plasma heating and current drive.


Alcator C-Mod



Alcator C-Mod at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is the only tokamak in the world operating at and above the ITER design magnetic field and plasma densities, and it produces the highest pressure tokamak plasma in the world, approaching pressures expected in ITER. It is also unique in the use of all-metal walls to accommodate high power densities. Because of these characteristics, C-Mod is particularly well suited to examine plasma regimes that are highly relevant to ITER. The facility has made significant contributions to the world fusion program in the areas of plasma heating and current drive, stability, and confinement in high field tokamaks.

The Falcon program objectives are to develop and demonstrate hypersonic technologies that will enable prompt global reach missions. This capability is envisioned to entail a reusable Hypersonic Cruise Vehicle (HCV) capable of delivering 12,000 pounds of payload at a distance of 9,000 nautical miles from CONUS in less than two hours.
In order to implement this flight test program in an affordable manner, Falcon will develop a low cost, responsive Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) that can be launched for $5M or less.

The Moller Skycar is a prototype personal VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aircraft - a "flying car" - called a "volantor" by its inventor Paul Moller, who has been attempting to develop such vehicles for many years.

The craft said to be currently under development, the M400, is purported to ultimately transport four people; however, single-seat up to six-seat variations are planned. It is described as a car since it is aimed at being a popular means of transport for anyone who can drive, incorporating automated flight controls. The driver may only input direction and speed, no piloting knowledge being required. The Skycar might use a system like the Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) in 3D "crowded" airspace areas.

Further, developers claim that by using eight inexpensive Wankel rotary engines - compared to jet engines, the vehicle's price may eventually fall close to that of a quality car ($100,000), even if at the moment the price for the first units is expected to be close to USD$1 million.

Its proposed features would include approximately 305 mph cruise speed, 360 mph maximum speed, max. height 10.8 km, ascend speed 1.4 km/minute, max. payload 340 kg, max. take off weight 1088 kg, more than 20 mpg (bio)ethanol, eight redundant, low-emission Wankel engines for safety, residential garage size, a parachute for the whole machine and road capability for short distances (to be driven to a vertiport). The fuel mileage is claimed to be similar to that of a big car, but despite potentially shorter routes and less queuing, this is widely viewed as unrealistic. Wankel engines are inherently less efficient than reciprocating engines, and, unlike car engines, aircraft engines have to run continuously at high power. Moller has produced no detailed figures to back up this claim. Operation of a Skycar "will only produce as much noise as traffic on a nearby freeway" when taking off, and "This will only last for a few seconds, because it climbs so quickly.".

http://www.moller.com/m400.htm

The Chevrolet Volt is a plug-in hybrid concept car created by General Motors. However, the company has avoided the use of the term "hybrid," preferring to call it an electric vehicle with a "range extender" due to its design. The vehicle is designed to run purely on electricity from on-board batteries for up to 40 miles (64 km), or about half the range of the GM EV1 - a large enough distance to cover the daily commutes of most Americans, which is around 33 miles (53 km). With use of a small internal combustion engine driving a generator to resupply the batteries, the vehicle's range is potentially increased to 640 miles (1,030 km) on the highway. General Motors Corp. had originally planned to build 60,000 of its Volt electric cars for their inaugural year, however have now scaled back production to 10,000 units.

The Volt concept vehicle was officially unveiled at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) on January 7, 2007 in Detroit, Michigan. An updated version was unveiled at the Shanghai Auto Show in April 2007 in Shanghai, China. At the time of unveiling, the Volt project had been in existence for less than a year. The Volt was targeted to cost around $30,000. As of April 2008 Lutz said that the realistic unsubsidised cost has risen to $48K. He reckons that $40,000 might be possible, without making any profit. Only government tax incentives could take the price tag nearer to $30,000.

http://www.chevrolet.com/electriccar

The Tesla Roadster is a fully electric sports car, and is the first car produced by electric car firm Tesla Motors. The car can travel 225 mi on a single charge of its lithium-ion battery pack and accelerate from 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds with the development transmission. The Roadster's efficiency is reported as 133 W·h/km (4.7 mi/kW·h), equivalent to 135 mpg–U.S. (1.74 L/100 km / 162.1 mpg–imp)
2009 Roadster base price: $109,000

http://www.teslamotors.com

I like new technologies, so I'm going to post latest or coolest. ;-)



All Electric

This Aptera is powered exclusively with batteries and will get you around town to the tune of approximately 120 miles depending on your driving conditions. At night you simply plug the Aptera into any standard 110 volt outlet and in just a few hours you will have a fully charged vehicle that will take you another 120 miles. The approximate cost of this option with all the features listed above will be $26,900.

Plug-in Series Hybrid

This Aptera is also powered by an electric drive train but it is assisted by a fuel efficient gasoline powered generator which stretches your range significantly. In typical driving you may achieve over 300 miles per gallon and you will have range far beyond any passenger vehicle available today. The approximate cost of this option with all the features listed above will be $29,900.

http://www.aptera.com