Looking into: Grass Skiing

If you love the thrill of skiing, and would love to continue the sport into the summer months, then you would love grass skiing. Invented in 1966 by Richard Martin, it was originally invented to give professional skiiers a chance to train for winter skiing, they have experienced a surge in popularity on their own. Originally found in Germany, they have since spread around the world and have gained success. Grass skiing is similar to traditional alpine skiing, except that you need a wider stance, and in order to stop, you must turn up the hill as apposed to the traditional "hockey stop" where you can essentially stop on a dime. The cost of grass skiing equipment is between $200 and $600 US. The skis are similar in design to a tank's tread, as they have a conveyor belt around a set of wheels which allows the skier to move. There are still poles to use, and in addition there is elbow and shin pads to prevent grass burns when falling. There have been grass skiing competitions, including the "Grass Skiing World Cup" which is basically the same as a regular ski race, except on grass.

Looking into: Flying Cars

For many years, there has always been the thought that one day, cars will fly. Well preliminary trials of the M200 has shed new light on the concept of flying cars. Although still in the "Model T" stage of development, this car's creator (Dr. Paul Moller) sees a significant market for these cars. After 40 years and $33,000,000 later, the M200 is being tested. The car could be going out on the market for about $100,000 each. The vehicle has been designed to take and land vertically, by getting lift from 8 fans around the outside. Each of these fans gives out about 70 horsepower, for a total of 560 horsepower. The creators of the design are looking at trying to increase the horsepower of each engine from 70 to 140 horsepower, as the car is not powerful enough to hold a person and a full load of fuel. The vehicle has been designed with lightweight reinforced plastic. However there is still alot of work to be done, especially with the landings which are a bit bumpy. This could be solved with a breakthrough on the car's engine. The car only has 3 moving parts: 2 rotors and a crankshaft. This simple design makes the car reliable, which is especially important when you are up in the air. The inventors are still waiting on the government to create a sky way system for further testing.

Looking into: The next energy supplier

Everyone has climate change in their minds, and we know that we can't stay with fossil fuels for ever. We need a change to something cleaner, more efficient and dare I say... plentiful? We're not talking about wind or water, we're talking something out of this world, 356,334 kilometers away in fact. Our next leading source of viable fuel alternatives, may come from our very own moon. Helium 3 (He-3). There is a vast amount of this resource on the moon. So much, in fact, that it could satisfy earth's energy need for hundreds of years. The process of extracting helium 3 is not too unsafe either. There is no radiation, like in conventioal nuclear fusion, and can be safely contained in a reactor. 1kg of helium 3, provides more energy than 10,000 tons of fossil fuels. On earth, helium 3 is quite scarce, with pretty much the only reserves being found in decomissioned nuclear warheads. Due to the moon's lack of atmosphere, the solar winds have left large deposits of helium 3 on the surface, especially in the poalr region. By the year 2020, Russia may consider extracting the resource from the moon if funding can be found.

Looking into: Space Elevators

Have you ever thought about going into space? Well a new technology known as carbon nanotubes has permitted the exploration of space elevators. These tubes are lightweight, and a very strong material. The only problem is, it would be very difficult and not economically feasable to build a 35,000km tube into outerspace. Due to high amounts of radiation in space, it would be too dangerous for people to be sent up in a space elevator, but would be fine for most cargo. There have been competitions held to see who comes up with the greatest design for a space elevators with cash rewards of many thousands of dollars. The elevator would most likely be powered by a high energy laser, which would be located on the ground and would charge a solar panel, thereby propelling it up. This laser would also be a problem though because so far there isn't enough technology to build a laser that strong. The base of the elevator would be located out in the ocean, as to avoid some environmental issues. Of course there are other issues such as the danger of asteroids hitting the elevator, or the collapse of the structure, but as the plans for a space elevator develop, some of the flaws may be overcome. Due to the recent discovery of carbon nanotubes, there has been a more in depth look at space elevators.