The idea of a Space Elevator is one that dates back to the first rocket scientists. It’s a reasonably simple idea, you set off a huge cable into orbit at the same rate as the spin of the Earth. You can then send things up the cable, just like an elevator. This would allow masses to be sent up to space without the huge burst of energy a rocket uses. The reason it cannot be done at the moment is that the cable would need to be both extremely light and strong to endure the tension forces. One of the most promising ideas is to use nanotechnology, to use super elastic carbon nanotubes. 1 gram of these can stretch 18 miles! [more]
