Under normal circumstances, broomsticks and rockets have nothing (that I can think of) in common. But at the December 2008 Space Elevator Conference in Luxembourg, these trusty sweeping untensils get the job--of going to space--done. European Space Agency engineer Age-Raymond Riise used a broomstick and an electric sander to demonstrate how a hypothetical "space lift" or "space elevator" might pull its cargo mechanically. The project could see a 100,000km long cable anchored to the Earth as a m..