Uranus and Neptune

So wouldn't that mean that the closer you are to the Sun the more difficult it would be to make the rays parallel? So further out, I would think, you could straighten out the lines 'more'. But it also seems distance is relevent, (according what people have said) in other words the further out you 'shoot' your straight lines, the less able you are to keep them straight by then end of your 'shot'.

Interesting, so I'm wondering, if you're out to Venus (in a polar orbit of the Sun though, so you always face Mars from the same distance), then use concave mirrors to redirect and 'straigten' the suns rays to Mars. And you don't care if the lines diverge some by the time they reach Mars, since the whole planet is a target, if it would produce a useful effect. The advantage being that the mirrors could be comparably smaller then mirrors in Mars orbit.

I also wonder what the limits are, how close to the sun can you get and how far into the solar system can you 'shoot'? Or is Venus to Mars already too much?
Brooks

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, Ian Woollard wrote: