Algae to crude oil: Million-year natural process takes minutes in the lab

Re:Algae to crude oil: Million-year natural process takes mi... by Gravityloss on Wednesday December 18, 2013 @01:44PM (#6929593)

No, that doesn't work since the sun is not a point source.

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Re:Algae to crude oil: Million-year natural process takes mi... by jonathlee on Wednesday December 18, 2013 @02:39PM (#6930049)

Maybe it doesn't work for lenses but it seems it would work for mirrors: http://www.academia.edu/5185260/SUNBEAMS_FROM_SPACE_MIRRORS_...

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Re:Algae to crude oil: Million-year natural process takes mi... by Gravityloss on Monday December 23, 2013 @08:03PM (#6957649)

Thanks for the good link!

Ok, here they produce 1-sun intensity by having a 10 km mirror at 1000 km height, focusing on a 10 km terrestrial array.

That's a similar angular diameter, 1/100, as the sun, so from the receiver's point of view it can appear as powerful as the sun. I'm surprised that the numbers work out like that.

Maybe you could create a huge "death ray" constellation with 10x solar intensity and whose ground track (all sats in the same ground track) was filled with liquid cooled solar panels. Over the ocean it would just kill everything in its path.

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