Skip 30 seconds in to see the bot slide up the wire. In a hundred years giant versions of this will be carrying 30 lb. orbital tomatoes back to Earth.

Five stars for Arthur C Clarkes new post-humous obituary: Died Of Shame.

So... they managed to tie a solar panel to a line and run said solar panel up thirty feet...

Unless there's more to it, why isn't this just some twelve year old's science fair project?

Awesome. And that's three years old! They seem to have made slow but steady progress since then:

http://www.spaceelevatorgames.org/

THIS is the sort of thing I expect with 2010 - literally and figuratively The Future! - a couple of months away.

Just this week they held another competition for it.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_space_elevator

I don't think connecting a wire/cable from the ground to space is such a good idea.

This just goes to show that we'll get to space any way we can. If NASA wont build us a starship, we'll take the fuckin' lift.