The British science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke once remarked that the world needs two kinds of people: uninhibited thinkers who are not afraid of far-out speculations, and conservative, hard-headed engineers who can make their dreams come true.

Clarke’s pearl of wisdom particularly applies to NASA's Beyond Einstein program. Scientists have dreamed up fantastic future missions that will lead to great leaps in human understanding of our Universe. They might someday explain what happens just outside a black hole, what mysterious force is causing cosmic expansion to accelerate, and even how our enormous Universe seemingly sprang forth out of nothing.

But space missions capable of answering these questions won't appear poof, as in magic. It will take engineers years of laborious effort to turn the dreams of scientists into the reality of instruments and hardware flying in space. Science and technology go hand-in-hand, and technological innovation has frequently led to great discoveries about the natural world.

By developing the technologies of the future, such as space lasers and paper-thin X-ray mirrors, NASA scientists and engineers will answer these fundamental questions, filling in some of the gaping holes in our knowledge of the Universe.

Development of cutting-edge technologies is underway at NASA's major research centers, and at universities and institutions across the U.S. and around the world. These programs will enable Beyond Einstein missions, such as Constellation-X, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), and the Joint Dark Energy Mission (JDEM), to soar into space. The dreams of scientists will become reality.

Investing in Beyond Einstein technology does more than enable near-term missions such as Con-X, LISA, and JDEM. It paves the way for the more technologically demanding Vision Missions later this century, spacecraft that could take pictures of black holes or help scientists explain how our wondrous Universe came to be.