Title :
Protoflight photovoltaic power module system-level tests in the space power facility
Author :
Rivera, Juan C. ; Kirch, Luke A.
Author_Institution :
NASA Lewis Res. Center, Cleveland, OH, USA
Abstract :
The preliminary plans for system-level thermal vacuum environmental testing of the protoflight photovoltaic power module in the NASA Lewis Space Power Facility (SPF) are presented. Details of the facility modifications to refurbish SPF, after 13 years of downtime, are briefly discussed. The results of an evaluation of the effectiveness of system-level environmental testing in screening out incipient part and workmanship defects and unique failure modes are discussed. Preliminary test objectives, hardware configuration, support equipment, and operations are presented
Keywords :
environmental testing; failure analysis; photovoltaic power systems; space vehicle power plants; NASA Lewis Space Power Facility; SPF; failure modes; hardware configuration; part defects; protoflight photovoltaic power module; support equipment; system-level thermal vacuum environmental testing; workmanship defects; Assembly; Certification; Hardware; Multichip modules; NASA; Photovoltaic systems; Solar power generation; Space vehicles; System testing; Vacuum systems;
Conference_Titel :
Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, 1989. IECEC-89., Proceedings of the 24th Intersociety
Conference_Location :
Washington, DC
DOI :
10.1109/IECEC.1989.74843
