Stairway to Heaven?

Whilst Western news is dominated by financial meltdowns, foreign news is more interesting. The Japanese government are going to reveal plans in November to build what they're calling a "space elevator", which was first conceived by a Russian scientist in the 1960s. It'll be nearly 36,000 km high and will take a week to get from the surface of Earth to the top of the elevator, where there will be a platform of some type. However, what would it be used for? Seems strange to me, but is pretty close to Charlie's recent explanation of how to get to Heaven!