[naterator]

Isn't this the type of thing a place like Bell Labs would, or Google X should, be on top of? And not fruitlessly rehashing the space elevator idea?

[melling]

It's probably a lot cheaper to crowd source the solution. You'll get a lot more effort for the money. Crowd sourcing a problem for a prize is a well proven method that's centuries old. Here are some famous examples:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longitude_prize

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_of_St._Louis

And of course, the modern X-Prizes: http://x-prize.com

The one improvement would be to crowd-source the challenges and the money. Think KickStarter but participants vote for the projects and donate the prize money.