Where’s my flying car!?

Honestly, it’s a fair question considering the ’50s predicted a future with a flying vehicle in every garage. It seems like we have been chasing the idea of a flying car, no matter how impractical, ever since. But this is not a post about flying cars, which have gotten enough attention already, this is a post about all the other pie in the sky technologies that have been ignored in favor of the flying car.

One of these days Alice…

You only have to look as far as Jules Verne to realize that before man ever entered orbit, we were thinking about going to the moon. In fact in the 60’s we were even planning on living on the moon. Magazine after magazine published articles with elaborate pictures and diagrams showing us how we would live comfortably outside the Earth’s atmosphere.

This is really how we thought we would be living by now:

Soon we will be serving the robots, not the other way around…

I’m happy to say that I’m a bit too young to remember Robbie the Robot from lost in space, but I did grow up in a world where Rosie took care of the Jetsons. Automated kitchens, automated shopping, automated laundry… basically everything would be automated due to to he fact that everything would be done by a mechanical servant. And while there are a few robots being introduced to help seniors, none come close to being true  robot maids and butlers.

Sharks with frickin laser beams attached to their heads!

Last but not least… LASER GUNS! Where are my laser guns? Buck Rogers had a laser gun, Star Buck had a laser gun, Marvin the Martian had a laser gun, Captain Kirk had a phaser, and Luke Skywalker had a laser SWORD! We use lasers for cutting industrial pieces, for flashy power point presentations and we may even be able to use it for fusion. But no one has seen fit to mount one of these things to a pistol grip for me to defend the Earth against the force of evil aliens? You think aliens can be hurt by bullets? Get real.

In the end there are hundreds of technologies out there that either exceeded our grasp, or we never quite got around to developing. What’s your favorite non-existent piece of technology, or crazy vision of a future that never was? What would you like to see invented?

• America
• Europe
• Russia

But if you ask me that same question tomorrow, or in the near future at least, the answer is going to get quite a bit longer:

• America
• Europe
• Russia
• India
• Brazil
• China

The first three on the list have been around for forty years or more and we could write a book about their accomplishments. But not many people think of India, Brazil and China when they think of space travel.

India

One only has to look as far as Bollywood to understand that India is truly a modern society, not entirely unlike our own. So similar, in fact, that they will even be creating a space program similar to ours. Within the next year, India plans to launch its own spacecraft! The aircraft-shaped spacecraft will launch via a conventional rocket and will glide back to earth very much like the space shuttle.

Launches will start at 60 Km but will eventually increase in altitude and duration until the shuttle becomes fully orbital. It seems the shuttle concept the United States has discarded will find new life overseas.

Brazil

Hosting the Olympics isn’t the only exciting event on Brazil’s horizon. The Brazilian space agency AEB, is once again working on its VLS program after it was halted due to an explosion that killed 21 people. The initial launch is scheduled for 2012 if all goes well. By 2014 Brazil plans to launch its own satellite bearing rockets.

China

I’ve written before about China being an upcoming power in the space sector, but so far they have only been intent on launching their own astronauts, satellites and cargo. But before long we are going to be seeing them taking paid cargo up like nearly every other country, however the real question is not when, but if China will institute the same strict controls it has put in place in other industries like news, religion, and even the internet. Undoubtedly China will want to do cargo lift business with the world, but will the world want to do business with China?