Stretched Lens Array SquareRigger (SLASR): A New Space Array for High-Power Missions

Author

O´Neill, Mark ; Howell, Joe ; Fikes, John ; Lollar, Louis ; Carrington, Connie ; Suzuki, Nantel ; Piszczor, Michael ; Hoppe, David ; Eskenazi, Michael ; Aiken, Dan ; Fulton, Michael ; Brandhorst, Henry ; Schuller, Michael ; McDanal, A.J.

Author_Institution

ENTECH Inc., Keller, TX

Volume

2

fYear

2006

fDate

7-12 May 2006

Firstpage

2006

Lastpage

2009

Abstract

SLASR offers an amazingly an extremely light-weight compact stowed volume and deployed platform for the flexible-blanket version of SLA for high-power space missions. For launch, SLASR\´s carbon composite structural tubes stow in a very compact volume, with the two folded and interleaved blankets of lenses and radiator sheets (containing the solar cell circuits) nested between the tubes. On orbit, the tubes automatically deploy to form rectangular "bay" structures, each about 2.5 mtimes5.0 m in size. After the bay tubular frame structure deploys and locks, the lens and radiator blankets are automatically pulled across the frame to form the deployed solar array. Under previous Stretched Lens Array (SLA) development programs, the photovoltaic receiver used discrete bypass diodes to protect the multi-junction cells from reverse-bias damage

Keywords

lenses; solar cell arrays; space vehicle power plants; SLASR carbon composite structural tubes; discrete bypass diodes; extremely light-weight compact stowed volume; flexible-blanket version; high-power mission; lenses; multi-junction cells; photovoltaic receiver; radiator blankets; radiator sheets; reverse-bias damage; solar cell circuits; stretched lens array squarerigger; Circuits; Glass; Lenses; NASA; Optical materials; Photovoltaic cells; Protection; Space missions; Space technology; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, Conference Record of the 2006 IEEE 4th World Conference on

Conference_Location

Waikoloa, HI

Print_ISBN

1-4244-0016-3

Electronic_ISBN

1-4244-0017-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/WCPEC.2006.279895

Filename

4060061