4. 5 Design Support Tests 



In the near future it is planned to lay two wire ropes on the 

 bottom from the shallow area just beyond the reef line to a 

 depth of 1000 meters or more. Attached to these ropes will be 

 samples of ocean telescope hardware identical to components 

 already on the telescope or under evaluation for future use. 

 It is hoped that these ropes can be readily recovered six months 

 to one year after installation and that they will provide valuable 

 information to support future design efforts and possible fail- 

 ure analysis. Some particularly interesting articles which would 

 be attached to this array are: 



a. XX and Marola Floats. 



b. Glass, Syntactic Foam, and other existing floats. 



c. New prototype floats and float retainers. 



d. Samples of various metals and metallic inter- 

 faces with and without protective coatings. 



e. Samples of armored cables for evaluation of 

 their resistance to wear on the coral bottom. 



f. Electrical connector and splice water-pressure 

 seals and non-wicking electrical cables for eval- 

 uation of long-term resistance to leakage. 



g. Wire rope terminations for evaluation of corrosion 

 at the bi- metallic interface. 



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