Future Tech

I have collected a few links to tech stories and will now relay them here and tie them together using an increasingly-strained film-based theme. Ahem.

1. NASA is working on a plasma drive for spacecraft. This is good news for people who want to get to Mars in a reasonable time (39 days) instead of the months it takes with chemical rockets. Plus it looks like what drives the Millennium Falcon!
2. NASA is also looking into using a ground-based laser to get rid of orbiting space junk before it hits our satellites or causes chain-reaction chaos, aka Kessler syndrome. The graphics remind me of a certain moon-sized space station...
3. There's a company building a Rankine Cycle heat regenerative external combustion engine. This differs from normal car engines by being quieter, cooler and able to use a wide range of fuels. Also it needs no catalytic converter, muffler, oil lubrication or transmission. This is clearly an engine of the future, and, um, was probably used on one of those pod racers? Yeah.