Title :
Flight performance of the Magellan Solar Array
Author :
Short, Owen ; Sharmit, Khaled ; Adams, William
Author_Institution :
Martin Marietta Astronaut. Group, Denver, CO, USA
Abstract :
The Magellan Spacecraft Solar Array, designed to operate over vastly varying environmental conditions, has completed over five years of flight operations. Flight performance of the Solar Array has met and/or exceeded all design objectives. Though initially designed for 15 months of cruise plus 8 months of planetary operations, the Solar Array continued to function 42 months past design life. This paper contains a brief description of the mission, a design description, and flight performance data
Keywords :
aerospace testing; photovoltaic power systems; semiconductor device testing; solar cell arrays; solar cells; space vehicle power plants; Magellan Spacecraft Solar Array; cruise operation; flight performance; planetary operations; Atmosphere; Circuits; Diodes; Gravity; Photovoltaic cells; Planetary orbits; Planets; Space vehicles; Synthetic aperture radar; Venus;
Conference_Titel :
Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, 1994., Conference Record of the Twenty Fourth. IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference - 1994, 1994 IEEE First World Conference on
Conference_Location :
Waikoloa, HI
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-1460-3
DOI :
10.1109/WCPEC.1994.520758
