posted 09-28-2014 01:13 PM               

Michael Laine has been trying to do something most people think is impossible for more than twelve years: build an elevator to space.

He's faced dire setbacks: the NASA project he was involved with got shelved, the financial collapse crushed his company and he had to move home to care for his ailing parents. Still, there's hope: he raised $110,000 on Kickstarter to fund his most ambitious experiment: making a robot climb the tallest free-standing human structure in existence.