Such a high-tech rope would, of course, have to cope with natural enemies such as storms, meteorites, space junk, electromagnetic fields and atmospheric erosion. But Edwards believes technology can solve all those problems.
The project has so far attracted US$500,000 in funding from NASA and the promise of US$2.5 million from the US Congress.
The idea of a space cable is traced to the Russian space pioneer Konstantin Ziolkowsky, who along with Robert Goddard and Hermann Oberth is regarded as the intellectual father of space travel.
Ziolkowsky began as a science fiction writer in the late 1800s, but later laid down some of the fundaments of rocket propulsion that are still used today.
Symbolic of how far the idea has progressed, this week's conference is deliberating how best to educate the public about it, whether there are health effects from the carbon nanotubes and the problems posed by man-made satellites and orbital debris to the nanotube cable.
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