High Temperature Superconductors (HTS) are widely considered for large power applications used by industrial end-users and electric utilities. The prominent application areas include power transmission cables, electric motors, generators, current limiters, and transformers. The promising design concepts rely on HTS to be a flexible composite conductor, robust enough to handle an industrial environment. Currently, the most advanced manufacturing method for flexible composite conductor is the Bi-2223-OPIT, used by many organizations. Significant advances in HTS technology have been made, with average critical current performance of 130 A at 77 K which is equivalent to an engineering current density of 15.1 kA/cm~2. During the past 18 months, American Superconductor increased its HTS wire manufacturing capacity from 250 km to 500 km per year to meet the increased demand for development and demonstrations. While this level of quality and quantity enables impressive demonstrations of prototype power applications, it does not fully meet the requirements of commercial economic viability. Therefore, to further decrease wire price to the range of $50/kA-m, American Superconductor is currently siting a new facility dedicated to the manufacturing of Bi-OPIT-2223 wire in quantities of 10,000 km per year. The purpose of this paper is to examine the functional, reliable, and economical aspects of today's HTS materials with an eye towards application in space missions.
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