Power-over-Fiber Safety Disclosure Record

PROBLEM: A light cable can carry power as well as data: a laser feeds a fiber and a photovoltaic converter turns the light back into electricity at the far end, immune to electromagnetic interference and far lighter than copper. That is exactly what a sensor-covered crew pod would want — one thin optical line per node, carrying both its signal and its power. But the technology is small-scale: current commercial power-over-fiber systems deliver milliwatts to several watts at 10–25% end-to-end efficiency. A pod that powers its sensors over fiber without disclosing those limits would be promising more than the physics delivers.

SOLUTION: A power-over-fiber safety disclosure record: every optically-powered node logged with its delivered power, its conversion efficiency, and its fallback when the light link degrades — so optical power delivery is specified honestly, with its limits on the record, before it is trusted with a crew member's sensors.

EVIDENCE BASIS: DOCUMENTED — Power-over-fiber: laser-fed fiber with photovoltaic conversion at the far end; immune to electromagnetic interference, galvanic isolation, much lower weight than copper (Fraunhofer ISE). Current commercial systems deliver milliwatts to several watts at 10–25% efficiency (industry reporting). Power-over-fiber at crew-pod scale is UNVERIFIED — the draft rests on the documented JPL fiber data bus and Goddard laser-fiber work, and treats optical power as the low-power-sensor case only. Sources: Fraunhofer ISE "Power-by-Light Systems"; NASA JPL NPO-47905.