The projects we profile in this special section all stretch the limits of what is possible. At first glance, they may seem impossible to build. some of the projects are technically possible to build but may be economically unfeasible.
The idea of an interoceanic waterway through Nicaragua is far older than the existing, 100-year-old Panama Canal.
More than 2,000 years of planning for a fixed link between Italy and the island of Sicily came tantalizingly close to fruition in 2006 when a construction contract was signed.
Engineers with the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration are on track to support surface construction on the moon within a decade, says Robert P. Mueller, senior technologist in the advanced projects development in the surface systems office for engineering and technology at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
The Very Large Structure (VLS) is described as a 600-ft-tall "city on wheels" that would remain in almost constant motion as it rolled over the countryside.
Elon Musk, president Tesla Motors and SpaceX, dubs his brainchild, Hyperloop, a “fifth mode of transportation.”
The first thing to understand about space elevators is that, in principle, they should work.“A space elevator appears feasible, with the realization that risks must be mitigated through technological progress,” concludes the International Academy of Astronautics in a peer reviewed feasibility assessment with 41 contributors published late last year.
A London designer looking to transform polluted cities into enclosed environmental havens could have used the more proven geodesic dome as its technology.