After over three years of direct planning and ten months of traveling through space, NASA’s Phoenix Mars spacecraft today sent back signals that it has made a safe landing on the surface of Mars. The Phoenix spacecraft appears to have hit the intended target in the icy area of Mars’ arctic circle.

Signals sent from Phoenix were delayed by 15 minutes as they were routed through the Odyssey satellite currently orbiting Mars and back to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Earth which caused the celebrations of steps of the landings to take place shortly after they actually happened on Mars.

Here’s the latest wacky concept from Japan. A solar-powered bra that’s eco-friendly. Forget the fact that it looks like someone glued a display onto a piece of astroturf. The solar panel on the waist powers a scrolling LED display above, so you can display a message, about how dorky you look. It can also power other devices.

Here’s the really strange bit. It has reusable liquid containers in the cups, because they want to discourage the use of aluminum cans. The upshot is that you would increase your bust size…Until you get thirsty.

Imagine a future where homes look like oversized futuristic gadgets rather then the same old stale design. The Reboot is designed not just to look pleasing, but also to be entirely self-sufficient. It has energy collecting solar paint, wind turbines and a rainwater collection system, for hydroelectric energy and water for the house.

The designer incorporates a variety of different renewable energy options together. Some of the features inside include, voice activated house controls and terminals throughout the structure that link to your home computer and phone line. It would be awesome to live in this house, but everytime I turned my back on it, I would feel like it was about to zap me with a plasma beam.

At NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program Spring 2008 show, graduate students were exhibiting some interesting and unusual projects. Like Oscar G. Torres’s Helios Power Tree, for instance. The leaves are constructed from thin solar cells that are all connected to a battery at the tree’s base from the branches and trunk. The battery uses solar power to charge and powers blue lights around the tree. There are USB outlets on the base.

The idea is that the tree would sit in a public space so that people can use the solar energy that it collects to charge any of their USB-powered gadgets. Money may not grow on trees, same with gadgets, but it turns out that juice to power those gadgets can grow on trees.

The Veil Shade might one day sit in the schoolyards of some Australian elementary schools, waiting for the right moment to strike little children. Or perhaps waiting for Indiana Jones who hates snakes.

Then again, it might be a completely innocent and unique way of collecting sunlight. It’s a concept from design firm Büro North, and it’s pretty well thought out. It automatically rotates during the day hours, to ensure the “hood” is always pointed at the sun. It also provides a shady spot on the underside of the hood. Also, the kids can actually learn something since markings and LEDs on the base show how much solar power the Veil is collecting.

You want some of that sweet solar juice, but you don’t want to tear up your roof just to get solar panels installed. Lumeta’s PowerPly could be the answer. The panels use traditional roofing adhesives, that most roofers will be familiar with, and the process means that there is no need to drill holes and bolts as with most other systems required to mount solar panels. It’s also faster. They can do an entire roof in 35 minutes!

It’s targeted at commercial projects for the moment, but hopefully residential houses will soon be getting the opportunity. Video below.

When you’re hell-bent on world domination, getting your hooks into little girls and hypnotizing those who love pink, then feeding them a steady diet of more pink cuteness, you want to harness an energy source that’s never ending. Like the sun. Once you do that, there will be no stopping you.

That’s why your pink feline overlord has given you this device. The Hello Kitty Solar-Power Charger can juice up almost any handheld device, whether it’s a phone, media player, or camera. And even if there is no sun, the charger can still be plugged into a DC outlet for up to six hours of power on the go.

Goldstriker knows a thing or two about making devices more beautiful, the iPhone is no exception and the Solar Star edition is their latest attempt. It features 24 carat gold plating on both the front bezel and Apple’s rear logo, while the rest of the case is the ultra luxurious Balloon White paint found on a Lamborghini Gallardo.

The white-and-gold color scheme is sex to the eye and looks nice to touch. It comes with updated firmware 1.1.4 and is unlocked for worldwide GSM use. You’ll get 16GB of flash memory inside. The $1,477 price tag is not for everyone. Some of us would rather save the money for a 3G iPhone, despite how beautiful this one looks.

Jedis aren’t real. Despite that fact, there are more lightsaber gadgets floating around the solar system then you can shake a… lightsaber at. These particular lightsabers won’t slice through flesh, but they will give you a sugar high that will have you bouncing off the walls like Yoda in a rubber room.

Hasbro’s Candy Lightsabers are based on the authentic movie weapons of Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker (red and blue). They’re filled with some sort of gooey, glittery, edible nastiness known as “Spliquid”, which comes in fruity flavors. If that dude who played Anakin in the prequels had sucked down a few of these, his acting would have been a lot less wooden and far more “I’ll kill you all with my candy lightsaber.”

Here’s something you don’t see everyday. The Bluetooth Dental Insert Microphone is described as the “ultimate bluetooth handsfree”. It’s a super small microphone packaged with solar panel and battery to provide the most portable unit yet. The composite resin filling is designed to fit in a hole 2.2mm in diameter and 1.7 mm deep(presumably replacing a tooth.) and it will pick up sound and vibrations from your mouth thereby producing super clear sound.

The earpiece features replaceable rubber grips and attractive chrome inserts and is compatible with all Bluetooth capable phones with Handsfree and Headset profiles. No word on pricing just yet, but the Bluetooth Dental Insert Microphone will be available soon from those wacky people over at Chinavision. As they point out, “All dental work should be performed by a qualified dentist, Chinavasion does not take responsibility for injury resulting from the installation of this product”.

Our favorite droid from the Star Wars saga has had more products built in his likeness then there are stars in the solar system. Chalk up another. The R2-D2 home telephone wants to take up space in your geek home and heart.

One of the legs unhooks as a standard handset. Features include head spinning and flashing lights when a call comes in (or at the push of a button if you want to impress your friends), ring selection (which can be standard, animation or R2-D2 noises), last number redial and volume control. It retails for £79.99.

Casio G-Shock watches have now apparently been around for some 25 years. The company has just rolled out another model - the Casio G-Shock G5500C - to join the product line and it prices at around $120.

The Casio G-Shock G5500C is available in three colors - red, green, white - and, like its predecessors, is shock resistant and also water resistant up to 200 meters. This particular G-Shock also draws its power from the sun via a built-in solar panel and rechargeable battery.

To quote Dave Bowman from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, “My God, it’s full of stars!”. A whole watch face that looks like the cosmos? Count me in. The Astrodea collection from Citizen looks sweet. The watch face has a 35° view of the heavens as seen from the Northern Hemisphere, which rotates in real time, showing 1,109 stars and 169 cluster galaxies. It has other features that include measurements like equinox indications, constellation markers, location of the sun, solar position, sunrise and sunset times and the daily duration of sunshine. That might be too much info for me, I just dig the looks.

It comes in both a blue or gold face version, with stainless steel case and band with non-reflective sapphire glass. And since the face is so detailed, it even has a 10x magnifier for close-up inspection. Both versions are available for $585.

The Ravi solar charger hopes to steer you toward greener living with it’s attractive flower-like design. The Ravi solar has photovoltaic arrays attached to petal extensions. The flower aspect is not just symbolic, it actually absorbs energy from the sun during the day, storing it in an internal battery. It gets some points for coolness due to the fact that the petals glow once the battery is charged. At night, you would have a kick-ass glowing garden. You would then remove the battery packs to power all of your home appliances.

The idea is that with gardens of Ravi portable solar generators in a neighborhood, enough power could be generated to supply the community, and if that can not be managed, it would at least lessen energy needs. It’s a pretty cool idea, but it has a kind of War Of The World quality that scares me.

USB flash drives come in many shapes and sizes, but once in a while one comes along with a design that stands out from the crowd. The Wedisk flash drive is a little Wii remote look-a-like which isn’t touting incredible capacities or performance but it does allow its owner to further profess their love for Nintendo’s latest and greatest gaming console while at the office.

The Wedisk has a retractable USB connector that pops out with a push of one of the Wii-mote buttons but that’s the only gaming action you’ll get. It comes in capacities of 1GB, 2Gb, 4GB and 8GB and in colors of the familiar white and a black version. It also has a LED indicator for showing that is connected and utilizes USB 2.0 for PCs or Macs.