Flight experience with LIPS-III

The Satellite LIPS III, the third in the series of living plume shield spacecraft, was launched into a low Earth orbit late in the spring of 1987. Some 140 solar cell experiments were placed on LIPS, and data from these has been acquired for two years. The quality of the current-voltage characteristic measurements is reviewed, and some anomalies in the data are described. In particular, excursions of measured short-circuit current which well exceed experimental error, are described. A model is proposed for prediction of Earth solar reflectance, and correlation between the calculated reflectance and excursions of short-circuit current is shown graphically. It is concluded that these excursions are of solar origin and not caused by a malfunction of the spacecraft