Stirling Energy Systems, Dish-Engine Solar Maker, Files for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy

This isn't news, as it is over a year old.  The article doesn't say why the firm failed.  Never mind that.  The reason for posting this is because of my recent brainstorm for using concentrated solar power for thrust in a spacecraft.

Here's a video of the company in better days:



The idea I had didn't involve Stirling engines nor the production of electricity.  Instead, the concentrated solar power would heat up a reaction mass, which would in turn be expelled out a nozzle as thrust.

These dishes produced 25 kw of electrical power from a dish about 10 meters in diameter.  In order to get a megawatt, you would need 40 of these.

Now Chang-Diaz claims that his VASIMR would not need a whole lot more than that in order to go to Mars.  I would think that this gizmo would be more efficient than VASIMR.

Getting a lot of mirrors up in space may seem daunting, but remember that there's no gravity and no atmosphere.  Therefore, the apparatus can be much lighter, as it doesn't have to support weight nor withstand wind and storms.

Getting this thing in space is a big challenge, but it may be doable.  I was thinking of stacking them and unstacking them once in orbit.  The mirrors need to be pointed to a focal point which is where the reaction mass would be heated.


Here's Dan Rojas demonstrating the power of one of these parabolic mirrors.


Infinia may still be in business producing a much smaller solar dish engine. Theirs is a 3 kw dish engine. Pretty small, but imagine a continuous source of power from the sun being put to work heating a reaction mass which would be continually applied as thrust. Even a small amount of thrust over a long period of time can generate an impressive amount of acceleration.



I'm thinking a small dish attached to a Nautilus spacecraft. Assuming all masses can be held down to a minimum, even a small dish power source may be able to get an impressive amount of acceleration over the long trip to Mars.