Screaming Penguin

Mentioned previously here it looks like NASA has $11m ($11M! If they pull it off, that would be the steal of the century!) to toss around on carbon nanotube powerlines:

HOUSTON - NASA announced Tuesday a $11 million project with Rice University — a leader in nanotechnology — to build lighter, more efficient power cables. "As we prepare our vision for going into the cosmos, this is a small step, but a significant one," said Jefferson Howell, director of NASA's Johnson Space Center. "To take humans out and away from Earth on the journey into space we need to develop new technologies." Scientists at the Houston university plan to make cables out of carbon nanotubes. The hotdog-shaped cylinder of carbon atoms can conduct electricity up to 10 times more efficiently than copper at about one-sixth the weight. Cables carry essential power but are a potential fire hazard in a space shuttle. They also contribute a significant fraction of the shuttle's weight. Researchers at Rice and the Johnson Space Center will try to create about 1 yard of the prototype power cable by the end of the four-year grant. Doing this will not be easy, said Richard Smalley, director of Rice's Carbon Nanotechnology Laboratory.

AP/Yahoo! As mentioned in the previous Tech Review article, this isn't a new effort at Rice or for Smalley, but it looks like he has some extra cash to fun the project.