Explore here new kinds of transportation systems, adequate for the needs of a maturing mankind, responsible to life. Transportation adequate to enable all the clean, renewable electrical power the world's growing civilization needs. Enable a powerful new way to totally recycle industrial waste products, even the worst of them, waste materials that nature cannot handle. Provide highly efficient lift of spacecraft to large scale spaceport facilities in GEO for reaching out to raw construction materials of the Moon and asteroids, and the moons of other planets close by. Even for again thinking about building those large scale passively shielded large scale space habitats envisioned in detail in the mid-1970's, except built in GEO initially from materials lifted from the ground, easy, and potentially very near-future! Think very high capacity, continuous, efficient, economical, reliable transportation between the Earth's surface and high earth orbit....

Space elevator technology is here now, and the good news is that there is now more than one way to do it; and that if we were willing, we could start to do it today while we still have the Earth energy resources to do so.

The bad news is that we obviously still believe that preservation of our way of life lies in triumphant conflict - - both war-like and corporate-business-like - - instead of pitching in together to effectively explore these powerful new ways for providing the energy resources, environmental health, and vast room to grow for our mutual high quality sustainable futures.

It may seem to some that a "space elevator" extending up from the ground all the way to orbit in space, is a total impossibility, considering the highest we now can now build a building. Yet recent advances in technology have prepared the way to make space elevators a strong near future possibility, and the great news is that now there is more than one way to do it, by developing certain existing technological bases.

Just in time, too, as civilization really needs heavy duty economical reliable continuous access to high earth orbit, starting yesterday... this is needed to provide the immense electrical energy required to power a high level civilization extended now worldwide; is getting desperately needed to enable the total recycling of the enormous accumulating toxic wastes of civilization that nature is not equipped to deal with; and sooner than one would think, will be needed for vast room to grow, such as in highly self-sufficient man-made comfortable homes built in high earth orbit, like the ones envisioned in the mid-1970's for use except then at L-4 and L-5 instead of at GEO.

Is mankind really up to this task? Will we stop compulsively fighting over scraps, and then responsibly turn to working together for mankind's longrange tasks, before either resource depletion or toxin accumulation win the race to close the curtain on mankind's show? Your choice!

• The expected basic benefits of near future space elevators: high capacity, economical, reliable transportation between earth surface and high earth orbit, which is free of the upcoming chemical propulsion energy source depletion effects.
  • With petrochemical production peaking in 5 years, the massive chemical energy required to conventionally lift things and people to orbit will become a major concern.
  • Alternative future options for civilization if sufficient space elevators do not happen quickly enough.
• KESTS to GEO: Space Elevator conceptual designs which utilize stored kinetic energy within structures to both support the structure between ground and space, and to deliver lift energy to vehicles traveling between ground and space
  • History of concepts related to energy-strengthened structures for transportation systems
    • History of this author's (J E D Cline's) efforts related to space elevator transportation systems
  • Creating a sliding armature energy-momentum transfer technology base
  • Construction techniques for building KESTS to GEO
  • Applications enabled by space elevators to GEO, particularly by KESTS to GEO
• An exciting tether-type Space Elevator recent proposal by Bradley Edwards, utilizing carbon nanotube matrix ribbon tether material, for a near future heavy lift capability to GEO and beyond
  • Exploring some variations on use of that technology
• Comparison between tether-type and KESTS-type earth space elevator conceptual design attributes
• Technological requirements are not the greatest obstacles to space elevator implementation, it is the lack of human urge to make it happen as part of today's business system.
  • Space Elevators fitting into the corporate business system
  • How to get people to work cooperatively toward great mutual goals, instead of fighting over scraps
  • Amplifying human capacity to function well