Scaling rebco

The VIPER strikes! - well, October 2020 it struck, and now ToughSf reports. The acronym is Vacuum pressure impregnated, Insulated, Partially transposed, Extruded, Roll-formed; the material is rebco. (Why not bisco?)

They say we were making hundreds of kilometers of rebco wire a year. But it has a known problem: 'tis brittle. And the magnets were limited to 15 T and, more to the point, 25 kA. We're looking at wrapping Ganymede or powering a Venus orbital ring. Protecting a planet, even Venus, from solar ions doesn't take all that much T but I suspect we'll get killed on A, even at Deimos. Those (slightly) less gonzo are improving aerofoils; in this article (pdf), the relevant section is V-D.

Conditions can be harsh up in low-atmo. The main variable is temperature, as the planet or moon moves around the sun. Yes in equatorial low-orbit too, during the many weeks of either equinox; those days and (more so) nights will simply be short. Low-tilt Venereans can expect that equinox to be eternal.

Overall, VIPER-crafted rebco, and maybe bisco too, seems like the way to work with superconductors in fluctuating-temperature microatmosphere.