Value chain · CLM-1180
In plain terms
The most powerful version adds curved mirrors at both ends of the satellite. Each end's pair of mirrors squeezes the sunlight to twice its normal strength, and because the light comes in from both ends, each layer gets four times normal sunlight in total.
The claim as recorded
CASSIOPeiA's highest-concentration variant reaches 4 suns as two times two: each end of the helix has a concave-conic primary and a convex-conic secondary reflector giving 2x, and the pair of ends lights both sides. SRC-026: "The Solid-State Symmetrical Concentrator (SSSC, Fig. 7, patent applied for) has been modelled with 4-sun (dual [x]2) concentration, implemented as a symmetrical pair of primary concave-conic plus secondary convex-conic reflectors. This subsystem produces uniform illumination intensity both across individual layers and at all layer depths (for both sides)."
Evidence behind this: T2 journal paper by the concept's inventor, reporting its own modelling of the concentrator; no measured optics.
Scope and limits
MODELLED, NOT BUILT OR MEASURED; no reflector dimensions, focal lengths or losses are given. "Uniform illumination ... at all layer depths" is the paper's statement of its model and is not shown by any ray trace in the paper. "4 suns" is system insolation at the layers, not cell concentration: the HCPV variant adds a local Fresnel-Kohler optic on top (SRC-026 PDF 6). The SSSC patent GB2571383A is now held (SRC-592) and states the arrangement for its Fig. 10 embodiment: "Each solar concentrator assembly 602 provides x2 concentration, for a total of x4 insolation" (PDF 26; CLM-1185). The patent's quadrant embodiment, in which each assembly lights one half of the helix on two opposite quadrants, is CLM-1184. Whether it is SRC-590's "Planar Quadrant (1-sun)" variant is not stated.
What it assumes
That "dual [x]2" means 2x at each of two ends; SRC-590's "2-sun concentration from solar north & south" (notes) says so in words, and this record reads the paper through it.
Where it comes from
PDF 5 [174], raw, transliterated: "The Solid-State Symmetrical Concentrator (SSSC, Fig. 7, patent applied for) has been modelled with 4-sun (dual [x]2) concentration, implemented as a symmetrical pair of primary concave-conic plus secondary convex-conic reflectors. This subsystem produces uniform illumination intensity both across individual layers and at all layer depths (for both sides)." Same page, raw: "Thus 2-sun system insolation is achieved using simple, rigid dual planar reflectors set at 45" (then the degree sign), the 2-sun variant it improves on. SRC-026 PDF 6 [175], Fig. 7 caption, raw: "Solid-state symmetrical concentrator (4-sun)."
Basis: system concentration in suns; reflector type and count
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-1180
CLM-1180, Energy Aperture, as of 2019.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
- Also from SRC-026
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