I could be wrong, but I really believe the space elevator concept is going to come to fruition. Nice progress continues in the development of carbon nanotube materials. By the way the yearly competition meant to spur technology progress for space elevator starts at the end of september.

http://www.elevator2010.org/site/competitionClimber.html">Space Elevator Competition

Lowering the cost to orbit by a factor of 100 will accelerate space exploration and development dramatically. Many of our science fiction dreams will come to fruition including asteroid mining, building large structures in space, and fantastically more rapid scientific exploration of the solar system and cosmos.

The most optimistic believe we will be able to have a "beanstalk" built within 15 years. That may be a bit too optimistic, but it will be interesting to see how rapidly the core enabling technology (carbon nanotube cables) advances. If that technology develops like many think it will, 15 years is not out of the question.

Maybe it is a matter of faith, but I believe a space elevator is inevitable and in the worst case it will be 30 years in the making. I hope it doesn't take any longer, because that is already making my dream to ride it to a space station before I die iffy!