For decades scientists have dreamed of constructing a “space elevator,” a 100,000 kilometre-long ribbon stretching from Earth to space that could ferry satellites, cargo, and passengers directly into orbit without having to use heavy lift vehicles or expensive launches. This would essentially open the door to outer space. Although the idea of a space elevator was once thought ludicrous, the discovery of carbon nanotubes and their amazing strength may make this and other technological visions possible.

NASA’s Center for Nanotechnology has been working since 1996 on developing bio and nanotechnologies in the areas of electronics, computing, sensors, and manufacturing. The director, Dr. Meyyappan, spoke on a number of development potentials at a recent talk hosted by the Canadian NanoBusiness Alliance.

Much of the research focuses around carbon nanotubes, tiny tubes about 10,000 times thinner than human hair formed from rolling up graphite. Besides being as stiff as diamond and far stronger than steel or titanium, these unique structures have a tremendous range of electronic, thermal, and structural properties that can be modified depending on the length, diameter, or twist of the tubes.

One potential application is as a new material in space suits. The incredibly strong nanotubes could shield the human body from radiation. It is also possible to integrate these nano-structures with bigger devices to create self-healing materials, advanced power systems, fuel cells, and Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).

The unique technology of MEMS combines sensors and logic in order to perform monitoring operations automatically. This new potential could be used to monitor the health of a crew or the integrity of a spaceship. MEMS technology could also be used to create a “lab on a chip”-small devices, about as big as a button, capable of automatically performing lab tests. Such chips could detect the presence of alien biochemistry on another world, and tell us if life may exist on another planet without us having to travel there ourselves.

It might also be possible to combine these ultrasmall sensors, power sources, and other systems to build fully autonomous “thinking” spacecraft. One idea is the creation of a fleet of nano-rovers driving, flying, and even digging on another world for in-depth planetary exploration.

The main obstacle to such fantastic dreams is, as usual, the price of carbon nanotubes, which currently cost around 50 times their weight in gold.