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The U49325 Sun Runner Stirling Engine is a solar-powered Stirling Engine which offers a dramatic demonstration of energy conversion.   This motor and its parabolic mirror can be attached to any conventional camera tripod. When properly aimed at the sun, the polished aluminum parabolic mirror focuses incoming solar energy on the heat cap of the engine, which is converted to rotary motion. Unit comes complete with motor, parabolic mirror, and wrenches. Standard camera tripod is not supplied. This engine is completely assembled and ready to run. Each unit is test run at the factory prior to shipping. Motor runs at 2,000 RPM and up. This engine can also run as a horizontal engine with an alcohol burner. Demonstrate this exciting method of harnessing the sun’s clean and renewable energy to your students.  Weight: 6.00 lbs Dimensions: Engine: 8.25 x 3 inches (L x W) Flywheel: 3.25 inchesParabolic Mirror: 18 inch diameterPlease note that this item is designed to demonstrate the operating principles of a Stirling engine for educational use and is not designed for power production.  It can potentially be coupled with a generator for producing very small amounts of electricity but is incapable of powering anything beyond a small light bulb or LED.

Hicks, R. Andrew, "Designing a Mirror to Realize a Given Projection," J. Opt. Soc. Am. A, vol. 22, No. 2, Feb. 2005

The 620325 Stirling Engine by Thames and Kosmos uses renewable energy from the sun to drive a generator, which charges a rechargeable battery to power an electric car.

Power a Car with Solar Generated Electricity       Discover the Stirling engine, a simple, clean and efficient energy technology that is quickly becoming a viable source of electricity as the availability of fossil fuels declines. The Stirling engine in this kit uses renewable energy from the sun to drive a generator, which charges a rechargeable battery to power an electric car. Named after its inventor, Robert Stirling, the original Stirling engine dates back almost 200 years. Today, high-tech Stirling engines are being used in arrays of giant mirrored solar collectors and common applications like compact generators. NASA is even working on using Stirling engines to power a human outpost on the moon!Like a steam engine, a Stirling engine is a heat engine that converts heat energy into mechanical work, usually to drive a generator that then converts the mechanical energy into electricity. But instead of water and steam, the Stirling engine uses a permanently enclosed volume of gas, such as air or helium, to perform the mechanical work. Stirling engines are highly efficient, can operate very quietly, and can use many different sources of heat: combustion of fuels, nuclear fission, geothermal, or solar heat, as this model uses. The Stirling engine in this kit is located in acharging station with a mirrored parabolic dish. The dish focuses the sun’s rays onto the cylindrical glass bulb of the Stirling engine to heat it up. The air inside the bulb heats up and pushes a piston, which turns an electric generator. The generator produces electricity that charges a rechargeable battery in the car. The car runs on an electric motor powered by the battery.The kit includes the charging station with a beta type Stirling engine, the electric car, and a full-color, 64-page manual.

Two military spy telescopes, just as big and powerful as Hubble, donated to NASA

The telescopes were built by private contractors for the National Reconnaissance Office, one of 16 U.S. intelligence agencies. Each have 2.4-meter (7.9-foot) mirrors, just like the Hubble, but they have 100 times the field of view.

the telescopes, built in the late 1990s and early 2000s, are now technologically outdated, at least for intelligence operations, despite being just as powerful as Hubble. Now that something that’s worth taking into consideration. Moreover, these telescopes worth hundreds of millions of dollars have never seen operation! Instead they’ve been shelved in a warehouse somewhere, of course, classified. And they might find themselves, yet again, blocked in a warehouse, since NASA, on a string budget, doesn’t have the necessary cash to fit them.