From: root@mauve.demon.co.uk   
      
   william mook  wrote:   
   > The ultimate in solar collectors must be the deposition of solar   
   > collectors onto the solar surface.  The sun puts out 3.86x10^26 watts   
   > of power.  Distributed over a sphere whose radius is equal to the   
   > radius of Earth's orbit this falls to a little less than 1,400 watts   
   > per square meter.  But on the solar surface this energy density   
   > exceeds 60 megawatts per square meter!  Clearly, if we could figure   
      
   > But of course, we need to figure out how to make something work   
   > reliably on the solar surface.  Which I haven't done.   
      
   Trivial matter of engineering...   
   60Mw/m^2 is not a big problem.   
   A millimeter of copper will only have about 140C across it at 60Mw/m^2.   
      
   The problem is the cooling.   
   You can only radiate to the sky, no convection is possible.   
   It may be possible to get a hair under solar temperatures by using   
   coatings that are more efficiant radiators than the solar atmosphere   
   (no absorbtion bands) but you'r still looking at well over 5000K.   
      
   This is a problem, as everything melts at this temperature.   
      
   It's probably easier to move out a bit, as you'r not charged by   
   the square meter for solar surface.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)