While we might be quick to whine about our lack of flying cars, hoverboards, lightsabers, time machines, teleporters, self-tying sneakers, personal robot servants, jet packs, and people walking around with three boobs, we have to admit NASA has actually been science-fictioning things up over the last few years. How so?

8 Morpheus Can Land Like a UFO

Anything stereotypically UFO-like in the history of NASA inventions has been shat on and cooked alive by the underside exhaust flames of NASA's latest "Shit, is that a real UFO?" achievement: Project Morpheus.

NASA

"We came up with the idea after chili day at the cafeteria."

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Project Morpheus is an unmanned prototype lander capable of vertically landing in darkness on rugged terrain, thanks to its Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology, which is presumably named after the prolific Dr. Alhat.