Reconstituting the intense irradiance of short-arc discharge lamps at a remote target, at high radiative efficiency, represents a central challenge in the design of high-temperature chemical reactors, heightened by the need for high numerical aperture at both the target and the source. Separating the optical system from both the source and the reactor allows pragmatic operation, monitoring, and control. We explore near-field unfolded aplanats as feasible solutions and report measurements for a prototype that constitutes a double-ellipsoid mirror. We also propose compound unfolded aplanats that collect lamp emission over all angles (in lieu of light recycling optics) and irradiate the reactor over nearly its full circumference.