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Originally Posted by (Pooeypants,) Check this link before you make more unappropiated assumptions.
And this one from NASA.
And I like this bit from it:
"During a speech he once gave, someone in the audience asked Arthur C. Clarke when the space elevator would become a reality.
"Clarke answered, 'Probably about 50 years after everybody quits laughing,'" related Pearson. "He's got a point. Once you stop dismissing something as unattainable, then you start working on its development. This is exciting!"<hr size="1" /></blockquote><span class='postcolor'>
I'm skeptical because of the way our space agency is handled and the overall fragmentation of the international community involving the International Space Station. I am familiar with the costs and technology involved, but it takes politics and NGOs to move such a great effort. Take the concept of Maglevs. It offers cheap, noise free, non-poluting, and fast transportation over long distances. The technology is over ten years old, but the first one to span over a long distance just opened in Shanghai. The indifference to a great alternative for mass transportation was because there was no need or tangible benefits for the average person to agree to spend the effort and money on such a thing locally.
But let's say one does get built in our lifetime. That is one big potential target for terrorism. How long would it have to last in order for it to pay off itself? Would the current political climate be better or worse in that time? And who could realistically pay for the bill if it came to one or two countries shouldering the burden, and who would have rights over it? It's easier to knock it down than to build it up again.