This is the first thing that lept to my mind, too. There's a lot of that sort of thing in space. Private industry is currently stuck trying to emulate NASA, but when it will really take off is when it finds something it can do better. Space mining is a very viable candidate on the decade time scale.
Need to do the nanotube thang first, though. We need materials with enough tensile strength to withstand the stress of a space elevator. Then you'll see space mining and solar collection.
