Everybody dreams about flying or teleporting around the world, or racing through the galaxy at warp speed. We all live in hope that one day we’ll be ‘beamed up’, or perhaps have the opportunity to experience the Boba Fett jet-pack from Star Wars, Serenity from Firefly, or the tube-transporter from Futurama. We can only imagine what travel will be like in the coming decades. Which of these ideas are actually viable you wonder? Well, read on for some of the more plausible, and interesting, options for the future of travel.

The Evacuated Tube-Transporter, Florida
If you’ve ever wished you could spend less time travelling and more time on holiday, then you’ll be happy to know that scientists in Florida have come up with a great way to cut your travel time. They’ve designed a transport alternative called an Evacuated Tube Transport system (ETT), which will reduce travel time by using a high speed transportation tube that utilizes frictionless magnetic levitation within an airless vacuum.

Each ETT capsule will be able to accommodate a total of six passengers (with baggage), travel at speeds of up to 4000 mph, all the while remaining airless and frictionless. This means you could travel from New York to Los Angeles in only 45 minutes, or go from New York to Beijing in only two hours. Based on their calculations, passengers could theoretically travel around the entire world in only six hours! According to projections, the ETT can be built for 1/10th of the cost of current High Speed Rails, or 1/4th of the cost of a freeway, as the capsules are very lightweight and don’t require the same level of support. The system will most likely be used for cargo at first, before being integrated into public transportation systems.

Manned Cloud Cruise Airship, Paris
Most of us know the unfortunate tale of the Hindenburg from history class; a high-class luxury airship that met a tragic end. But one unfortunate ending shouldn’t dismiss a great idea, and designer Jean-Marie Massaud has come up with plans for a luxurious airship hotel, in partnership with the Office National d’Etudes et de Recherche Aérospatiale (ONERA).

The proposed French airship will have a whale shape, be able to accommodate 40 guests and travel a distance of up to 5000km. Plans include an entire deck dedicated to amenities including an on-board restaurant, lounge, gym, and library, while the second deck will contain the guests rooms, a spa, a bar and terraces. A sunbathing deck has even been considered and would be placed at the top of the helium-filled envelopes. The best thing about the proposed airship is that passengers could observe places around the world without disturbing the natural scenery, and travel the world with barely a trace. The opening slogan for the company is “Living in the sky, watching the Earth from above”. Let’s just hope this project makes it past the design stage and gets off the ground. A similar idea was also put forward by Wolke7, for a future flying house.

Autonomous Pod Cars, Heathrow
Pod cars aren’t a vision of the future anymore; in fact a company called Ultra PRT have already produced and gone through the testing phases of these sleek little electric beauties. The pods made their first appearance at Heathrow airport in August 2011, taking passengers from Terminal 5 to the car park. Officials at Heathrow were so impressed with how well the test pods worked that they ordered 22 pods to replace two of their diesel buses in a pilot project.

But how do they work, you ask? Well, similar to trams, these pods wait at terminals for passengers. When a passenger enters, they simply provide a destination before setting off on designated roadways, not rails. Currently each pod can accommodate four passengers and their luggage, move at a top speed of 25 mph, and can even manoeuvre through light snow. Ultra PRT has won awards from the London Transport Times as well as the Business Parking Awards, and plans are under way in Amritsar, India and Suncheon, South Korea to build a pod system which will be ten times larger than the one at Heathrow.

Self-driving Cars, Nevada
It seems that the idea of autonomous cars is becoming popular, and motor companies like Audi, Ford, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, and Volvo have starting development on their own versions. Even Google has been busy developing the vehicles of tomorrow, in collaboration with Toyota using a hybrid-hatchback Prius.

Google is a new player in this field and may soon begin production of their car range in Nevada, which is the first state to pass a law allowing the licensing of automated cars. So far, the internet giant has used a fleet of 10 Prii (the official plural of Prius) to log over 250,000 miles with their computer driven vehicles in California and Nevada. To operate one of these vehicles all a driver needs to do is program the destination, much like we do with GPS systems, before sitting back and letting the on-board computer handle the route and speed. This new breed of car certainly seems safer and more fuel-efficient than our present day motor vehicles. However, cars such as these do raise some interesting queries: would the automated cars be susceptible to hackers, and who is at fault in the event of an accident? Despite a Google car crash in California last year, which was ruled as human error not robotic, it seems likely that mass production will begin in a few years – which is definitely something to look forward to.

Space Ship Two, New Mexico
Weightlessness … that enviable feeling that astronauts experience when reaching the upper atmosphere and space. The closest thing to it, here on earth, is treading water in the ocean (the higher the salt content the better). But bobbing about in the sea shall no longer be our only alternative as the opportunity to experience orbital conditions, and view the vast blackness of space, is within our grasp! In 1999 Richard Branson created Virgin Galactic which, according to Wikipedia, already had plans to provide sub-orbital spaceflights to tourists, as well as suborbital launches for science missions and orbital launches of small satellites.

In October 2011 Richard Brandson, along with New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, launched the first commercially-produced space planes. WhiteKnightTwo is both the mother-ship and launch-platform and SpaceShipTwo is the actual space plane. After the launch he, along with his son Sam and daughter Molly, named the first commercial spaceline terminal, the “Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space”.

The SpaceShipTwo line will be expanded to five craft; each of which will carry six passengers and two pilots, totalling eight people. The entire flight into space and back is expected to take around 7.5 minutes. Out of the five planned SpaceShipTwo gliders, two have been completed and are called VSS (Virgin Space Ship) Enterprise, and the VSS Voyager. You can book a seat for the suborbital flight, scheduled for some time in 2013, by buying a ticket for a cool $200,000 which is about R1,665,384.

Let us know which of these you’re most excited about, and what other futuristic transportation options you’d love to see in the next decade.