Jerry Stuckle wrote in
:

Actually, high temperature superconductors have been found at
temperatures as high as -135C. And in the shade, space is very cold,
even at Earth's distance from the sun, shaded items are very cold. Even
the moon, which will hold some heat, cools to -233C at night time.


I wonder if the ISS might be a place capable of doing tests like these. Parts
of that must be in constant shade, so maybe some test of a space-based
superconducting antenna is feasible. (I'm not ignoring what Jim said about
having space to build a big, normal antenna, it's just interesting that there
might be scope now to try this just to see what can be done with it. Also,
given the cost of sendign heavy stuff out there, it might be viable anyway
if it saves the need to do that so often).

I think the odds of this happening between now and the end of the solar
system are pretty slim. If a small wire could so easily be hit by a
micrometeorite, our satellites, space stations, rockets, etc., all much
bigger, would be in deep doo-doo.


Ok. Besides, never mind stretching, the superconductor would be brittle,
probably. Would a swarm of partcles redirected from sun via some magnetic
field, passing the antenna wire, be enough to heat it to the point of
supercondcuting failure? I have no idea about this, it just seems that there
might be a lot of energy, even if thinly distributed..