space elevatorAccording to this Wired News article, the crash of the Columbia may spur development of the space elevator- a 64,000 mile strip of carbon built straight into the air. NASA is working on the problem right now. In their plan, elevators would go up and down the strip, launching things into space. But 64,000 miles is just a quarter of the 240,000 miles from Earth to the surface of the moon. Other crazy NASA ideas? Programmable plants! [Jen]: Dude, I think 64,000 miles is plenty...I mean, I just see lots of problems with an elevator that is connected from the moon to the rotating earth...don't you? [Jake] Hell no- a 64,000 mile long elevator, dangling precariously above the surface of a cold indifferent planet? What could go wrong?!