to see the article in today’s WSJ, click here.

Born Rich has an interesting post about its top ten picks for futuristic hotels - click here to check it out!

previous hotel related posts:

The Radisson huge lobby acquarium

Waterworld in China

Underwater Hotels

The tennis court heliport at Burj al Arab

Poseidon underwater hotel (conceptual video):

It was Nikola Tesla, who first proposed there was unlimited energy that could potentially be tapped and beamed to earth from the ionosphere. In a different twist to a similar concept, there’s an article on Space.com about the potential to build huge solar satellites that orbit the earth and beam energy to us via microwave technology. Of course, billions of dollars would need to be spent on r and d and infrastructure, but as the article points out, we’re already spending billions securing our oil in the Middle East, and the prospective cost of global warming could be even more.

Check out the article here.

[And, in other space related news and insights, be sure to check out Roger von Oech’s post today about the “Thuban Phenomenon.”]

A research group from two Beijing, China universities is developing maglev technology to launch spaceships into orbit at a fraction of the cost of current rocket departure methods. A spaceship would be magnetically levitated over a track and up an incline, and lift off when it reaches a velocity of 620 miles/hour. [source link] Researchers at NASA are also apparently investigating similar technology. [source]

Another fascinating propulsion possibility are lasers. The Department of Defense has invested in developing battlefield viable lasers beyond 100kW solid state by 2009, but the same technology could allegedly be used for pushing satellites and probes to Mars in days rather than months. [for more information, click here.] [Thanks, Futurismic]

Japan-based Astro Research Corporation is designing and launching custom 10-inch, solar-powered satellites. The cost: $860,000, which covers the cost of the satellite, launch and operational services, as well as a satellite launch field trip and a satellite location notification service, which favorably compares to current satellite development costs of between $10 and $20 million. The MySat satellites can be used for a number of purposes, including earth observation, component testing, disaster monitoring, remotesensoring, and even advertising. Once in low earth orbit, the MySat-1 will circle the earth about 14 times per day. Owners can also tune in to their satellite’s radio signal on a Web site to monitor its location and listen to it as it passes overhead. [via discovery news]

Several university, private industry, and government groups are developing an innovative approach to accessing the inner solar system via robotic elevator cars that move up and down a ribbon, which is anchored to earth, and a small man-made counterweight in space. The elevator would potentially carry satellites, solar power systems, exploration probes, factories, and eventually people into space.

In October, there was a space elevator competition at Moffit Field in Silicon Valley. The competition was run by the Spaceward Foundation, a non-profit group, and had a $50,000 prize money furnished by NASA. No group won, and the preliminary elevator technology is believed to be at least two years off.

According to Siliconbeat, there have also been secretive demonstrations of a Space Elevator project by the Foresight Nanotech Institute. The project apparently also involves Liftport Group, which has received a waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to use airspace to conduct preliminary tests.

Liftport has a launch date set: April 12, 2018.

[Thanks, Liftport Group, Siliconbeat, San Jose Mercury News]

[Update: The March 1, 2006 issue of Business2.0 Magazine has an excellent and detailed description of the space elevator concept.]