Aviation Week & Space Technology has a recent article about On-Orbit Automation; efforts being made to robotically repair and refuel satellites.  At the National Space Society’s Space Elevator Special Interest Chapter, they have a copy of the article.  As they point out, this type of technology will play a significant role in Space Elevator development.

Zhiping Xu, Lifeng Wang and Quanshui Zheng propose that “condensed multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CMWNTs) can greatly enhance intershell shear strengths by several orders, and can simultaneously generate higher tensile strengths and moduli respectively than those of ordinary CNTs…It is believed that CMWNTs featured with those properties can be taken as excellent candidates of super fibers for creating space elevators.”  You can find the details here.