The problem is the size of the sun. If you could look at the sun (don’t, try the moon its approximately the same size in the sky), you see it has a relatively large angular size. Its not just a point in the sky.
So the problem, the rays from one point of the sun are almost parallel. But the rays from the different points of the sun are not. So they also aren’t parallel after your mirror. They spread in an angle similar to the size of the sun on the sky. And this is much larger than a satellite. So you cannot focus all energy on a satellite.
Yep this is 100% accurate. I got so carried away disagreeing with the idea that it’ll spread out again in inverse-square fashion like from a point source, that I completely missed the people telling me that it’ll spread slightly because of the size of the sun. Absolutely true.
The problem is the size of the sun. If you could look at the sun (don’t, try the moon its approximately the same size in the sky), you see it has a relatively large angular size. Its not just a point in the sky.
So the problem, the rays from one point of the sun are almost parallel. But the rays from the different points of the sun are not. So they also aren’t parallel after your mirror. They spread in an angle similar to the size of the sun on the sky. And this is much larger than a satellite. So you cannot focus all energy on a satellite.
Yep this is 100% accurate. I got so carried away disagreeing with the idea that it’ll spread out again in inverse-square fashion like from a point source, that I completely missed the people telling me that it’ll spread slightly because of the size of the sun. Absolutely true.