To what floor of the universe are you going?

A man named Bradley C. Edwards is trying to make a radical idea into a radical reality by trying to figure out how to build an elevator out of a suspended cable attached to the surface of the earth and extending into space. Using mechanical means instead of the law of conservation of momentum to "launch" people beyond our atmosphere, Edwards claims that the elevator would greatly cut the large costs that are currently part of the space program. Supposedly, the cable that the elevator would travel on would be kept taut by "the competing forces of gravity on Earth and the outward rotational acceleration of the planet in space."

The biggest challenge to the space elevator has been developing a cable tough enough to extend 62,000 miles without breaking. This, Edwards explained will be solved with carbon nanotube composites - tiny bundles of carbon weaved together to form a ribbon that will be stronger than steel. His startup company, Carbon Designs, Inc., is currently focused on developing this technology.

Is this really possible? Would the design really work without defying the laws of physics? Would the coreolis effect have an influence on it? There are probably a lot of skeptics out there (like me) who think that this is too weird to actually work, but then there were most likely a lot of skeptics about the ability of airplanes to fly, when they are obviously much heavier than air and, according to normal human reasoning, would never get off the ground. There were probably also a lot of people who were unsure of the idea of sending people up beyond the confines of our atmosphere into space in a rocket. The sky is no longer the limit. You never really know what might happen next. It will be interesting to see what develops, if anything, from Edward's proposition.