NASA ANNOUNCES FIRST CENTENNIAL CHALLENGES' PRIZES

Not so.

There is no mention of space elevators in the NASA announcement.

It mentions tethers.

There is a big difference :-

space tethers are real, they are already demonstrated, and they have
many exciting short term applications. Space tethers have a bright
future.

on the other hand

space elevators are vaporware, the most optimistic projection I have
seen (from Mark Laine and co) is that materials will become strong
enough in the time frame of the year 2018. Whether a space elevator
will ever be built is highly debatable(IMHO).

Meanwhile, we could have a propellant-free tether based momentum
exchange system for soft landing on the Moon a couple of decades
before a space elevator becomes available. ( reference
http://www.tethers.com ). Tethers will continue to benefit from
ongoing improvement in materials technology. And indeed, the same
materials will be the basis of stronger composite construction
materials and panels, e.g. for aircraft structures. There is
enormous commercial potential right now for stronger materials in
all walks of life.

Of course, Thor Olson has pointed out (in personal correpsondence)
that long tethers (whether for elevators or not) have major
practical problems, e.g. electrical discharges, and might never work
in the size range of tens of kilometres.

Best regards,

Charles F. Radley