Space is getting closer to being accessible! Well.. at least if you have some money to spend it is. Regardless of how much money you have (or don’t have) though, It is still exciting to see cutting edge technology being developed.

Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic are teaming up to unveil the new WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft design on Monday.  SpaceShipTwo will connect to the center of WhiteKnightTwo and get lifted to 50,000ft.   Once at altitude, SpaceShipTwo is dropped for the remainder of its space flight up to 360,000ft.

Virgin Galactic is now accepting bookings for the first flights.  For a mere $200,000, you get a 2.5 hour flight on SpaceShipTwo, as well as 3 days of training.  Training includes a variety of simulations intended to ensure a safe flight and help to make the most of the Zero-G time during the flight.  Unfortunately there is a minimum deposit of $20,000 required to book the flight as well.

This one is definately on my to do list though.  Hopefully as the technology progresses, the price will come down.

Thanks to the Remember the Milk blog, I just came across one of the neatest services I think I’ve ever seen. Sometimes technology just makes you say *cool*!

Do yourself a favor and take a look at Jott.com. This service lets you call an 866 number and do a variety of things, including sending email, leaving quick notes for yourself, and looking up property values through Zillow.com. The service is free, at least for now. There isn’t anything on their website that suggests they are looking to charge, but things are always changing. I think I’ll be making good use of the service while its free anyway.

Enjoy a cool new toy!

Tesla Motors has been getting a lot of buzz lately, and its no wonder why. True to the name, Tesla is bringing the all electric car back to market. Electric cars have been done from time to time, but nothing that I know of comes close to the technology that Tesla has developed.

Racing truely is the heart of the automotive industry, and Tesla is demonstrating their understanding of this principle with their inagural product, the Tesla Roadster. This sports car shows its ties to Lotus its design, and its performance will keep even the pickiest driver coming back for more. The latest performance tests demonstrate just how remarkable this all-electric vehicle really is. With a 0 to 60 time of just 3.4 seconds, its sure to glue you to the seat, and with no noisy combustion engine to disturb the neighbors.

In the past, range has been a limiting factor for the electric vehicles – another problem well solved by Tesla. With a range of nearly 250 miles on a single charge, only the longer road trips become a challenge. The normal charging cycle provides plenty of power to keep things rolling for the typical commute. To ensure safety, Tesla has designed the full charging system to protect the user from any possible shock. Charging current only flows through the cables when both the car and the charging station agrees that everything is connected correctly. For driver on the go, a mobile charging system is also available. To top it off, there is also a solar array available that will offset the electrical costs associated with charging the car for about 50 miles of range per day.

All in all, I would *love* to get my hands on one of the Tesla Roadsters. While the ninety thousand dollar price tag is a bit steep, it really is not bad at all for all the car you are getting. Alas, ninety grand is more than I can afford at this time, but perhaps in a couple years the price will come down as production ramps up. I wouldn’t be able to get one any time soon anyway, since the entire 2008 prodution run is already sold out. Ahh well.. It doesn’t stop me from dreaming.