Yes, people. The future of clean energy, inflatable rocket suits, and everything else you saw in “Tomorrowland” (or didn’t, probably) is close at hand. And it all starts with the first ever solar-powered flight around the world.

Last month, pilots Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg were sent up into the sky to cross oceans with only the power of the sun to hold them up. Solar Impulse launched the plane and the two men from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The plane, traveling day and night, went around the world from Muscat to Cairo, hitting Mandalay and San Francisco on the way.

The airplane runs on no fuel whatsoever. For propulsion, there are electric motors that collect and stores solar energy. This lets the plane run on the sun even at night, flying sometimes even for two days non-stop to get to the next city checkpoint. “It’s an amazing feat,” said science teacher Jeanne Hall. “Every person on this planet should celebrate this development. Now we have to take it to the next level.”

Breakthroughs like this are only the beginning. Like the first plane that was built from wood and fabric, this clean use of energy is just the tip of the iceberg. Who says that we couldn’t convert this into building and our day-to-day lives?

Who says that we couldn’t solar power our own school?

Despite the impressive feat accomplished, solar power energy is still a work in progress and extremely expensive. The cost of the entire program towers more than $170 million and the price won’t be going down for a while. And even though it worked once, would it be enough to support 100 people instead of just two?

That is not a reason to hesitate though. The sooner we get to regular use of solar energy, the sooner we could make a significant change in the Earth’s environment. Whether it starts with a multi-million dollar airplane or a simple science fair project right in our own school, you can bet that the future is coming and it’ll be brighter than ever.