I am assuming we are discussing a trial model here on Earth. It'll be in a water environment, so its buoyancy could be made whatever you want, but I'd say 30-40% of its weight in air. Also, the tether would have considerable tensile strength via its metal sheath, not from the optical fibers.
My guess is that at surface, fully loaded with say a mile of cable, it'd be in the neighborhood of 100 kilos or less. I wouldn't worry about the climbing/respooling feature at this time. When we do though, I was thinking of a spooling desing like a covered spin casting reel for fishing, where the line plays out through a hole at end/center. Jack -----Original Message----- From: Joe Latrell [mailto:joe_latrell@;beyond-earth.com] Sent: Monday 28 October 2002 15:24 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Radio control v. Wire... and 1 part or 2? How big is this thing supposed to be? Depending on the mass, crawling back up a fire optic cable is almost guaranteed to break it. Fiber is small and it does not have a lot of tensile strength. Joe On Mon, 2002-10-28 at 13:42, Reeve, Jack W. wrote: > > A little additional thought would be to enshroud the data fibers with a > metallic outer wrap, then energize that for heat for repositioning and > distressing in the event of ice movement. Another potential advantage of a > light cable spooled out from the probe is it would give the probe purchase > upon which to climb in the event of the need to choose another path due to > massive planar inclusions or other significant obstacles. > > The notion of harnessing the radiation fields present to generate electrical > energy is very intriguing. If that were possible, the tether AND the probe > could be energized from a surface mechanism, thereby allowing the tether to > be spooled out from the surface, freeing the probe of this burden. > > Jack > > -----Original Message----- > From: Robert J. Bradbury [mailto:bradbury@;aeiveos.com] > Sent: Monday 28 October 2002 13:49 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: RE: Radio control v. Wire... and 1 part or 2? > > > > On Mon, 28 Oct 2002, Reeve, Jack W. wrote: > > > A few miles of light-transmitting fiber spooled out behind the cryobot > > shouldn't weigh any more than the proposed transmission "pucks". Also, if > a > > metallic filament were adjacent the optical line(s), it could be > > periodically heated to reposition and de-stress itself in the event of ice > > movement. > > That appears to be what NASA did with its Antarctic missions, but they > didn't attempt to heat the wire. They used heated water drilling to drill > a big hole then lowered the probe down the hole attached to fiber optics > as best I can tell. Review the slides from the URL I posted earlier. > > Robert > > > == > You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/ > == > You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/ == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/ == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
