...it's corporate and political will. Tesla turbines could be made to power vehicles, leave very little pollution and perform with extreme efficiency.

Getting financed, avoiding corporate hit-men and receiving anonymous threats are part and parcel of the difficulties of such revolutionary, fiscally upsetting designs.

I have learned that the best technologies must be privately financed and researched outside the general public. Yet, at the same time, it helps to have the deep pockets of a company who is going to get rich off of one's designs. It's easy to attract negative attention, not so easy to attract investors.

Naturally, the government must be left out of the financing process for such things, because they immediately can use anything developed without paying for it, and all one's efforts are not renumerated. What's worse, they can suppress the technology if it was financed by certain agencies.

Corporate espionage is a bit off topic, but the main point is that, whether it be automobiles or spacecraft, the private sector will be the only ones really working on breakthrough stuff - because the brightest scientists and engineers generally don't do their best work for the government.

There are a hundred and one technologies that could replace the internal combustion V8 engine. Most big companies just want to float on their existing revenue generators and the small hungry ones seldom have enough capital to build or launch a large revolutionary technology.

That's why the nuclear powered spaceships aren't exploring the solar system right now - Wernher von Braun died too early and the Vietnam war killed off most public support for US space program.

Timing is everything.

As a result of poor timing, we have a lame-o space station, no space colonies and nothing capable of even leaving Earth's orbit - and the date is 2007.

Not exactly Earth's best effort has been put forward.