More about the comments from Elon Musk and Chris Farnetta at the recent Future in Review conference in San Diego: A Sneak Peek At The Future - Forbes.com - May.19.06 (via spacetoday.net.)
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The ultimate practical strength of carbon nanotubes may be lower than what is needed for space elevators: The space elevator: going down? : Study shows that proposed carbon nanotube cables won't hold up. - news @ nature.com - May.22.06. I'm no big fan of space elevators but if I were I would not certainly take this analsys as the final word on the subject. As Brad Edwards indicates, for example, the strength of a group of fibers may be larger than that of a single isolated one.

Carbon nanotubes are going to be useful for lots of applications. So their development will be pushed and their performance will be determined empircially rather than from theory papers.
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Speaking of mass transit to space, vartious types of maglev catupult systems have been proposed over the years. A company named LaunchPoint has now gotten some Air Force money to study a Magnetic Satellite Launch System based on its Magtube Transit System technology: Magnetic sled could hurl objects into orbit - New Scientist - May.22.06

I got a feeling, though, that the company's Power Ring maglev flywheel might turn out to be more useful in space. Such an energy storage system could be very useful for a Moon base during the 2 week long lunar night.