An Igloo for Astronauts on Mars.

Me, "I really like this idea. Using Martian Ice to surround an inflatable Mars Habitat. It really uses the best technology at present. You use inflatable technology. like Bigelow Space is pioneering, and you extract water from Martian atmosphere? Let it freeze over, and around the habitat, like an Alaskan igloo, providing a natural radiation shield. The idea of sending this thing and it automatically inflates and fills with water ice around it is just brilliant. The only thing I am worried about is with all this ice around the habitat will there be a problem keeping warmth in? Other than that it is a great idea. But before getting your hopes up as to this being a full time solution, remember this is just a temporary place to live. An underground Mars colony is still the safest kind of colony to build because you still have Martian dust storms to deal with that can eat away at this habitat. At least underground you can build out a huge colony nestled in a safe Lava Tube."

From article, "NASA just released its incredibly cool concept for houses on Mars"(NASA researchers have a lot of problems to work through if they want astronauts to one day set foot on Mars. One of the biggest hurdles is where these early pioneers will sleep and live, and after a day of brainstorming, engineers might have come up with a solution – a conceptual 'ice home' design.

Yup, NASA is looking into creating inflatable domes covered in ice for astronauts to live and work in, providing them with protection from extreme temperatures and high-energy radiation.

So what exactly is an 'Ice Home' anyway? Well, though the name invokes images of igloos, and that mental image isn't all that far off, the concept NASA’s working out – officially called Mars Ice Home – is an inflatable, inner-tube-like device that, when inflated fully, is covered with a thick sheet of protective ice.

The Mars Ice Home design has several advantages that make it an appealing concept. It is lightweight and can be transported and deployed with simple robotics, then filled with water before the crew arrives," the team says.

"It incorporates materials extracted from Mars, and because water in the Ice Home could potentially be converted to rocket fuel for the Mars Ascent Vehicle, the structure itself doubles as a storage tank that can be refilled for the next crew."

The major goal of the Ice Home concept is to protect astronauts from high-energy radiation, such as cosmic rays, that can penetrate the Martian atmosphere. These rays can damage cells, raising the risk of a slew of health concerns such as cancer and acute radiation sickness.

One of the best ways for humans to survive on Mars, the team says, is to burrow underground, which offers the best protection from all of the harmful things on the surface.

To do that, though, some sort of shelter will need to be waiting for the astronauts once they get there, and the team thinks the ice dome – with its lightweight frame, easy construction, and ability to use water materials that are already on the planet – might be the perfect solution.

"After months of travel in space, when you first arrive at Mars and your new home is ready for you to move in, it will be a great day," explains team member Kevin Kempton.

Without the inflatable habitat, which the team says can inflate and cover itself with ice extracted from the Martian landscape in about 400 Earth days, researchers would have to likely find a way to get heavy drilling and digging machines on Mars to create underground shelters before astronauts got there, a concept that would be far too complicated and cost way too much money.)

Flying Cars are on the Way? Once Battery Technology Improves and New Safety Features are Included.

Me, "As long as battery technology continues to improve, with how much energy it can store, charging times go down, and autopilot technology continues to improve, we could see flying cars in the not to distant future. Safety of flying car is important. Flying car technology has not taken off because of the fact that people are afraid their car could just stop working and fall out of the sky. As flying drones have shown, as long as you have many electric propellers, if you lose one or two you can still touch down safely.With more propellers you have more safety and with automatic pilot you just need to know how to interact with a computer, telling it what you want it to do."

From article, "Near term Improved batteries will enable commercialized flying cars"

(Brian German, an aerospace researcher at Georgia Tech. argues that lighter and more powerful electric motors, batteries that can store more energy, and more sophisticated aviation software could transform the market for small aircraft.

Each time batteries improve, electric airplanes can be a little lighter and fly a little farther on a single charge.

German says battery technology isn’t quite there yet. He predicts the energy density of batteries will need to approximately double for small electric airplanes to really take off.

Batteries don’t improve as rapidly as computer chips, so it’s hard to say exactly how quickly batteries will improve. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is currently building a giant battery factory, has said that battery density typically improves by 5 to 8 percent per year, which implies that density could double in the next decade — though that could require finding new battery chemistries.

The other key breakthrough is better software. An airplane with 10 propellers is just too complex for a human pilot to manage effectively. But computer software can easily manage 10 propellers at once, supplying power to the propellers where the most thrust is needed.

And German says multi-propeller designs have significant safety advantages. “If you lose one, you still have some left,” he says. “You can design a lot of redundancy.”

The combination of smaller, more powerful electric motors, better batteries, and sophisticated software will open up dramatically new possibilities for aircraft design. 
The vast majority of batteries use organic liquid electrolytes, which are low-cost and easy to prepare.

Higher current densities and quicker charging times are conceivable in solid state batteries (SSB). 

Lithium Ion technology is already mature, and the fight for reduced costs (per kWh) and further performance improvement is clearly dominating the market. SSBs will only become a major contender if they can provide a significant performance jump in one or more of the key properties. Usually energy density is considered the top priority, but power density is important when it comes to the need for quick charging. Long-term stability, both long cycle and calendar life (lifetime of batteries in terms of number of discharge/charge cycles and time after production), is another key requirement, as the volume changes of the electrodes during cycling of the SSB cause mechanical strain and stability problems. 

Solid electrolytes are often considered ‘enablers’ of high-capacity lithium-metal anodes, as their mechanical strength may prevent dendrite growth. A successful integration of the lithium anode would offer an increase of up to 70% in energy density and serious attempts are surely worth the effort. It is worth noting that lithium-metal electrodes operate well in thin film solid-state batteries with low area-specific capacity, where only about 1 μm of lithium is cycled)