an experiment at the University of Pennsylvania. It might be a bit far-fetched but I thought it might be useful when exploring new planets.
Combined with AI the robot would able to assess the terrain and deploy another robot the shape of which would be chosen to best suit its environment. I was thinking of this in the context of exploring places on other planets which are inaccessible by regular rovers (e.g. caves on Mars).
Coming next: Dancing bear jumps through burning hoop! ... on Asteroid!!! :-P
But seriously - Chris Hadfield did an amazing job in getting ordinary Earthlings interested in space.
His educational videos can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUaartJaon3LV-ZQ4J3bNQj4VNVG2ByIG
And in case you wonder, this is *not* the most expensive music video ever made. Also, launching his guitar to the orbit was still far cheaper than the cost of some guitars sold on earth.
Where else can this info come from if not http://what-if.xkcd.com/45/
The plume issue is not that difficult. I think they used something similar on Apollo LES. The problem is stabilizing the entire system, which is extremely difficult. The entire system will most likely plummet down after the solar balloon phase (which is the only phase they tested before). At least they are not using government money :).
Apparently it's becoming a more and more popular hobby in US... Wonder when we'll start seeing airplanes going down because of some wannabe meteorologists...
Another Star Trek technology :)
Might have an positive psychological effect if astronauts on long term missions could virtually escape their confinement - walking through a labyrinth with the blue sky above them. Ok, ISS does not provide enough space, but on Moon or Mars...
Quite ambitious russian version of the future. Immortality is quite on the edge in the next 15 years! Don't miss the superheroic Youtube-video on that page! :)