In a December 27th posting on inhabitat.com, the statement was made that “…NASA has pledged $3 million over the next five years to research the idea and is working on scale models…”.

No reference to any specific NASA program was made, but my guess is that the author, Mr. Timon Singh, is referring to the $3 million still to be awarded by NASA in the Space Elevator Games.  I’ve emailed him to confirm and will post his response.

The article is also interesting in pointing out that Dr. Mark Miodownik, a materials scientist from Kings College in England announced a “new proposal”, creating a Space Elevator from Carbon Nanotubes.  Leaving aside the fact that this is not a new idea at all, it is cool that this idea was supposedly delivered at the Royal Institutions Christmas Lecture, set to be broadcast on BBC4 at the end of the month.

I have also emailed Dr. Miodownik, asking for more details about the lecture and broadcast and will post them if/when I receive them.

The article has been, in various forms, picked up in several blogs / sites around the ‘net.  The source is apparently an article in 12/26/2010 issue of The Sunday Times which one needs a subscription to access.