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Among the vendors suggested by Gemini was Edmund. I am among the thousands if not millions of folks who bought products from Edmund Scientific. The Wikipedia page on that company sure brought back memories. The company still exists in a sense, because while it has changed names a bit and changed owners along the line, the services it provided from the beginning still appear to be it's focus.
Here is a copy of an email I sent to their Tech Support contact address:
Hello!
Gemini (Google's enhanced search engine) came up with your name when I asked for help finding a vendor.
I'm a (Junor) moderator for the NewMars.com/forums, which is a subsidiary of the Mars Society, James Burk Executive Director.
The forum has been operating for over 20 years, and it has over 1000 registered members, although only a few are active on a daily or weekly basis.
In my role I seek to provide support for our members when they offer interesting ideas.
In this case, we have a member who is interested in thinking through how to enlist sunlight to propel a space vehicle more effectively than is possible today using photocells that propel ions.
Our member's idea is to use thermal energy in a way that is similar to the NERVA nuclear rocket.
The difference is that while the NERVA system used fission to produce thermal energy to accelerate liquid hydrogen, our member's design would use solar energy to do the same thing.
In contacting you via this contact email, I am inviting your support to help us think through the optics. We have others in the membership with expertise in propulsion. I am attempting to help our member to find a set of products that exist today that could be assembled on orbit to produce 40 megawatts of thermal energy.
The specific need is for a TIR lens that can collect photons from a surface of 10 square centimeters and deliver them efficiently to a standard optical fiber used for communications. We understand that a standard communications fiber can handle a watt of energy without overheating, so the TIR lense is sized to collect a watt from the Sun if flown at a distance where insolation is 1000 watts per square meter. A lens that would have that area would have a diameter of 36 mm, and I see a number of lens offerings in the marketplace of that size.
The dilemma I am facing is the delivery to that optical fiber.
By any chance, are you aware of a TIR device that can perform the required function?
The gent who is leading this inquiry would like to collect 40 MW for his heat engine, and an array to perform that service would be 460 meters on a side. The individual one watt collectors would be 36 mm in diameter, and we would need 40,000,000 of them.
A propulsion system developed along these lines should last for centuries, since there are no parts to wear out. Radiation will be beating on the system incessantly, so it may degrade, but the rate of deterioration is outside the scope of our ability to estimate.
Just FYI... this question and all correspondence you may decide to provide will be published without editing on the NewMars.com/Forums site, in a Category called Interplanetary Transportation and a Topic called Focused Solar Power Propulsion.
Thanks very much for your time!
tahanson43206 (Junior moderator)
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I am please to report that a member of the staff of Edmund Optics replied to my inquiry.
Hello Tom,
Thank you for contacting Edmund Optics product and application support. I am personally reviewing your inquiry and will be responding as soon as possible. If your inquiry requires immediate response, come chat with us at www.edmundoptics.com or call us at 800-363-1992. Alternatively, we do offer a vast amount of technical content in our Knowledge Center which may be of assistance in the meantime. I look forward to speaking with you!
Best regards,
–————————————————
Simon Field | Product Support EngineerEdmund Optics® Tucson
THEFUTUREDEPENDS ON OPTICS™
I'll report any further correspondence as it may arrive.
Members are welcome to add questions they may have, or to offer suggestions for finding vendors for this specific application.
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This is a follow up to Post #27...
At the Edmund Optics site I clicked on the Optics button and got this:
Optical Lenses
Optical Lenses are optical components designed to focus or diverge light.Optical Lenses, which may consist of a single or multiple elements, are used in a wide variety of applications from microscopy to laser processing.
Many industries utilize Optical Lenses, including life sciences, imaging, industrial, or defense.
As light passes through a lens, it is affected by the lens’ profile or substrate. A Plano-Convex (PCX) or Double-Convex (DCX) lens causes light to focus to a point, while a Plano-Concave (PCV) or Double-Concave (DCV) lens causes the light traveling through the lens to diverge.
Achromatic Lenses are ideal for applications requiring color correction, while Aspheric Lenses are designed to correct spherical aberration.
Germanium (Ge), Silicon (Si), or Zinc Selenide (ZnSe) lenses are ideal for transmitting the Infrared (IR) spectrum, while Fused Silica is well suited for the Ultraviolet (UV).
Edmund Optics offers the world’s largest inventory of off-the-shelf optical components, which includes an extensive selection of stock optical lenses such as Achromatic Lenses or Aspheric Lenses. Many of Edmund Optics’ lenses are offered with a variety of coating options for the Ultraviolet (UV), visible, or Infrared (IR) spectrums.
There a number of images of various optical devices below the text.
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