🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <37410aff@ofa123.fidonet.org> Mark.Perew@p201.f208.n103.z1.fidonet.org writes:
>Putting a fiber optic umbilical on a remote sensing platform designed to
>traverse rough terrain seems very odd to me.  Can someone explain to me why 
>this was done?  A few things come to mind such as eliminating the weight
>required for a radio and associated power supply.  Also the fiber optic does
>allow for high reliability and high speed data transfer.
>
>I'm *not* throwing stones at the Dante folks.  I'm just doing some head
>scratching and hoping someone will explain this to me.
>

I don't know how Dante's umbilical is put together so I can't comment on that
but...

In the early 1980's, Northern Telecom pioneered the development of a helical 
sheath that greatly reduces the stress placed on an optical fibre due to either
bending (bad!) or stretching (worse!).  The helical sheath was developed in
response to problems encountered when laying underground cables using
a machine called a "ditch witch".  

I don't have any details handy but I'm sure someone else on the net can
provide them.

---
Dave Michelson
davem@ee.ubc.ca