So catching up to some random technology news over the summer, it seems that there have been some advances in optical nanotechnology to the point of being able to make things seem invisible…at a very small scale. While this analysis puts that as a media overreaction, it still is quite a leap forward in terms of being able to generate metamaterials which may one day lead to the development of things which can negatively refract light.
In other news, more good news for nuclear power, though it does come with some slight drawbacks. While this doesn’t do anything to help alleviate the cost of constructing the power plants themselves, I’d figure anything which can potentially halve the cost of a component of producing nuclear power is a good thing. I guess the IAEA’s going to have to change their methods from looking for centrifuges though. And hey, NASA must be happy that a potential moon base will have lower costs to produce…eh, it’s going to go over bugdet anyway, what am I saying.
So, space elevator technology? Check. Potential cloaking technology? Check. Holography? Check. Where’s my damn Warp drive, science?
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Straight out of science fiction and one of the more promising developments that seems to be emerging within quasi-space architecture arena is the space elevator. And just this past week we nearly had a Canadian university team, who were working on building a part of said elevator (at least the things that may end up building/transporting stuff up and down it) nearly fulfill the requirements set by the contest to claim top prize! They still came in first, nonetheless, missing out by climbing the structure just 4 seconds too slow, and seem to be on track to finally reach the ever-increasing and ambitious goal set by NASA when they compete again in 2010.
All in all, great showing, and an awesome stride forward to the possibility of making such an orbital-delivery system that much more closer to reality.
~Shaun
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Weakly Discourse 