A space elevator is a self explanatory device. It works by launching a thin coiled tether into geosynchronous orbit. Then the tether is brought down many thousands of miles to the surface of the earth and attached to the ground. A counter weight is then put just out of the orbit to make the tether tight. Successively larger tethers and counter weights are brought from the surface until the elevator can manage practical payloads. This structure would greatly reduce the cost of sending satellites and people into space. It would also reduce the amount of space junk left for each satellite. The reason we haven’t built one of these yet is that we don’t have the materials technology to create a tether that’s both light and strong enough. So what is NASA doing to make sure this revolutionary technology will come in the foreseeable future? Not much. In recent years NASA has provided minimal funding for a space elevator project. As of 2007 they stopped funding their NIAC which researches advanced concepts. Now they are funneling much of their cash into the Ares/Orion spacecraft which is expected to succeed the shuttle fleet. Even though the internal technology it will use will be revolutionary it will still be a simple rocket. This is a conceptual step backward from the space shuttle. If this funding went instead to a space elevator project we would be able to get the same payloads into space for a much cheaper cost. The Ares/Orion project is expected to cost $104 billion. Cost estimates for a space elevator are significantly less but are premature. Either way NASA needs to get its priorities straight. Even if a space elevator would cost the same as the Ares/Orion project each payload would cost much less and the elevator could end up paying for itself. The bottom line is there’s no reason to invest in more rocket technology over space elevator technology.