We Might Be Taking The Elevator Up

A long favourite of mine, Dr. Edwards' Space Elevator.

The idea is to connect a platform 62.000 miles Out There to Earth with 1-meter wide carbon nanotube. Groundlaser powered elevators can then travel the cable, lowering operational cost to about $100,- per kilogram (instead of $15,000 now).

He has received over $3 million to fund his research papers, and technically spoken this is all possible for a very feasible price ('bout $15 billion).

Got you curious? The papers can all be downloaded from the Institute for Scientific Research's homepage.

IMHO (and I know I'm being slightly fatalistic) this is the only way for us humans to survive in the long term and to sprawl out into the solar system. The universe should be next, but I'm probably not going to be around to see that :-D

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=624&u=/ap/20040625/ap_on_sc/space_elevator_3&printer=1