Cypherpunks: Jim Bell meets Sumitomo Electric: And it's now a space-based horse race!!

[jim bell]

 On Thursday, September 12, 2019, 01:45:22 PM PDT, grarpamp <grarpamp at gmail.com> wrote:
 
 
 On 9/12/19, jim bell <jdb10987 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>> Jim Bell meets Sumitomo Electric at Seattle.


>> What I proposed amounted to
>> a leprechaun saddled on a unicorn, itself standing on the
>> back of a winged-pig.  Flying.

>Yes my friends, pigs will indeed fly.
Somebody just informed me...
It looks like somebody else's fibers will "fly" even higher than a winged-pig.  Apparently, somebody is planning to manufacture silica waveguides in space, at the ISS.https://madeinspace.us/capabilities-and-technology/fiber-optics/

https://www.wired.com/story/the-best-place-to-make-undersea-cables-might-be-in-space/
https://upward.issnationallab.org/the-race-to-manufacture-zblan/
https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2018/09/06/optical-fibre-made-in-orbit-should-be-better-than-the-terrestrial-sort

Copied from somewhere:
" bandwith broadening "from near-IR to mid-IR"  And a theoretical loss of less than 0.05 dB/kilometer.Wide transmission window (Near-IR to Mid-IR)
 Theoretical attenuation < .05dB/km @ 1550 µmOptimal light transmissionDramatic reduction in dispersion and absorption"      [end of quote"
A very interesting thing is that ALL these characteristics are very suspiciously similar to the improvements that my composition fiber should provide.  While I don't doubt that making them in microgravity would be an improvement to the mechanical fiber, I really doubt that a ordinary-composition silica fiber would (if made at the ISS) result in "near-IR to Mid-IR" transmission window.  
At this point, I suspect that they are using my formulation, and making it in space.  I wish they had informed me of this, to get me credit.  But that raises yet another issue:  If THAT'S what they are doing, they presumably did build MY fiber before, here on Earth.  I'd sure like to see the results!!  And somehow, I doubt that the extra improvement of making it in space will be worthwhile.  
Keep in mind that sending materials to and from the ISS is quite expensive.  While fiber is light, the amount of fiber needed to supply the entire world will be hugely expensive.   
            Jim Bell



  
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