A Space Elevator really needs more tensile strength than structural support strength, at least once you get off the ground a few 100 meters. All proposed designs I have seen seem to prefer a tether, or cable of some type that links from the earth to a platform in geosyncronous orbit. Trying to build a structure from earth out into space without a tether seems almost impossible, the base of the structure would have to be miles wide.
What about a craft that contains a bunch of 3D printers, that we launch into space. Then they start printing up massive solar sails ?
Or, here's a good one: we could use this technology to build a telescope in space that is far bigger than the Hubble. In this design the 'reflector' (light collector) would be far from perfect (smooth surface normally being required), but we could use two magnetically levitated (i.e. separated) disks of mirrors counter-rotating to collect the light in such a telescope, and over the large exposure times it seems like the rotation would cause the 'errors' to cancel out, and end up rendering a perfect image onto the camera's chip. Actually for that matter, you could use two counter-rotating mirrors shaped like curved helicopter blades 100 yards long, that would rotate, reflecting to the camera, and over time, the photons collected would STILL end up rendering a perfect image. Imagine the kind of quality image we would get from a 100 yard telescope!
grondilu
Dec 3, 2012space elevator?