Comment by msandford
2 days ago
It's an interesting take to be sure. I suspect that the lack of flexibility is going to be the real killer.
You'd probably have to build offshore platforms on either side to bring the cables up and terminate them and now that's a nightmare, saltwater/salty air and electronics don't mix well.
Or you're going to have to trench very deeply for the first few miles.
Either way you're stuck with something that really doesn't want to be bent.
I think the "glass is great insulation" is a good insight and perhaps a composite glass fiber/polymer sheath would really increase the V/m without the brittleness.
a material that stretches 1% to failure (like steel/aluminum) can ballpark bend to a radius 100 times the thickness. so a 1 meter cable could bend 100m radius before cracking. assuming 10x margin that would be 1 km radius. large but not crazy. A tube that size can easily span 1 km trenches in water. you could also add a few meters of foam around it to make it neutrally buoyant and just barely press on the ocean floor.
> meters of foam around it to make it neutrally buoyant
In the deep ocean (typically 4km deep), foam collapses and doesn't float...
> interesting take
I think that's being generous.