On Tue, 4 Apr 2006, D. Jay Newman wrote:

> Interesting. Was this released on April 1st, or is it real?
>
> It would be nice if it were real...

Relax, it is real but not exactly new. In the land of the blind the one 
eyed man is king. He was the only one using an offset paraboloid mirror 
so he more than doubled the incident energy on a plain solar cell. It 
would have been cleverer to make the 'sail' point with the round side 
forward, to reduce air resistance. If the sky was clouded uniformly it 
would not have mattered energy-wise.

Peter
-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist