As to actually lofting the elevator, you should see the tape climbing competition they have every year (I believe they had a helium weather balloon last year up to a height of 1½ kilometres (~1 mile), that they climbed, though usually they use a stiff ribbon on a large crane under a LOT of tension to simulate the real thing. (exempli gratis: If you were to PUNCH the real few-millimetres-thick ribbon, you would almost certainly do much damage to your hand, cause no perceptible change to the ribbon itself, and if the dull thud of your blow where to reverberate at all, you might actually get a very low frequencey “bong” — though it would more likely be like hitting a steel girder).

As to lightining, yes, CNTs *can* conduct electricity, but to where? It will have the same charge as the surrounding air. It will remain essentially neutral as it will change potentials to match it’s surroundings. Besides with, CNTs are extremely versatile. By doping the material with other atoms (gallium arsinide, or hydrogen, et al) you can make it into an *insulator*. Theoretically, you could have one CNT on the OUTside as insulator and a CNT on the INside as the conductor. This is an all-around amazing substance!

Weather? This thing is being built in the most weatherless portion of the Pacific, near the equator, where there is virtually no lightning or winds or storms, so that is not really an issue. It’s out of the shipping lanes, off all the air-routes, and or no interest to anyone not headed to space. And if it needs to be defended, you can mount a few Sidewinders on the platform to discourage tourists…

You mentioned “orbiting debris”, and you are right to be concerned, but it is all under complete scientific control (shades of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy!). You see everything has a period and the elevator will be no exception. It will move and swing and gyrate (albeit not too noticably for the passengers) but it will move MILES laterally and this motion can be easily controlled and directed so as to avoid Ed White’s lost glove and Alan Sheppard’s lost wrench. Remember, all these things are constantly being tracked — we know where they are — and the elevator operators will be told, just like the shuttle or any craft in orbit, when an approach in imminent so they can “do the dodge”.

You also said “I’ve not seen much released to date that realistically addresses the challenges of the space elevator beyond the materials science.” and this is why I was suggesting a couple of the websites to look at, so you could actually see some of the interesting things they’ve managed so far. They’re worth a peek.

That, in my eyes, is a level of breakthrough not unequal to simply discovering the stuff in the first place. And they still haven’t addressed the main tactical problems of lofting the elevator, even if the material were there to actually pull it off. Lightning (I’ve been reading that the nanotubes they’re assembling are somewhat conductive, what keeps this thing from becoming an oversized lightning rod?), weather, security, the lift vehicle itself, the satellite anchor, orbiting debris (this one REALLY scares me).

I’ve not seen much released to date that realistically addresses the challenges of the space elevator beyond the materials science.

“We firmly believe that the set of technologies that underlie the infinite promise of the Space Elevator can be demonstrated, or proven infeasible, within a 5 year time-frame.

“And hence our name. Elevator:2010. we promise to get an answer for you by then.”

It was once said we would have a space elevator 50 years after everyone stopped laughing. I get the feeling there’s a chuckler or two left out there somewhere.

As to James Buchanan’s (Doodler) concerns, all I can say is flying up to space is patently SILLY. Oh, don’t get me wrong — we NEED to be in space — the economic gains are incredible. But we sure as heck don’t need knuckleheaded pilots (government or otherwise) flitting around like gnats or mosquitos around a campsite. Visit this link to see something truly intelligent:

http://spaceelevator.com/

What’s my concern? Well, if civilian spaceflight becomes available and affordable, imagine what this means for commercial space industry. You might see a small start up in civilian tourism, but provide corporations with low cost to orbit systems that they can have control over from assembly to lift off to landing without nitpicky government oversight? Stand the heck back, or you’ll get knocked over by breeze as they go by.

Be it for research, manufacturing, whatever, its possible we could see a new bubble develop like that which developed around the dot coms of the late 90s. Start ups, hacks, and other aspiring hopefuls suddenly clogging the spacelanes with whatever crackpot ideas that come to their minds.

Look at the junk that’s left up there from years of government use, military use, and relatively regulated corporate use now, and imagine that volume exploding in magnitude with the development and deployment of an affordable civilian launching system without any kind of environmental regulations covering that kind of litter/pollution. Putting 2 and 3 man crews up on the ISS generates [i]tons[/i] of garbage over the course of a mission, now multiply that number by the potential number of competing space launch services that could come about on the leading edge of a new economic bubble, if it takes off successfully.

Heck, we can’t even regulate cruise ships on the oceans here on the surface, now put them 200 miles straight up where close inspection and observation is all but impossible?

There’s a LOT of potential in low cost to orbit spaceflight, but its a double edged sword, and we’d better swing it carefully. One major accident up there spewing enough crap into a major orbital lane and we’ve got a problem that will haunt us for years to come. Unregulated dumping of garbage, accidental loss of exterior equipment, or even flushing enough toilets overboard over time is going to convolute what is already a problem that gives mission and flight controllers gray hair.