Materials Adherence Experiment: technology [space power]

Author

Jenkins, Phillip P. ; Landis, Geoffrey A. ; Oberle, Lawrence G.

Author_Institution

Essential Res. Inc., Cleveland, OH, USA

Volume

1

fYear

1997

fDate

27 Jul-1 Aug 1997

Firstpage

728

Abstract

NASA´s Mars Pathfinder mission, launched December 4, 1996, reflects a new philosophy of exploiting new technologies to reduce mission cost and accelerate the pace of space exploration. Pathfinder will demonstrate a variety of new technologies aimed at reducing the cost of Mars exploration. Chief among these will be the demonstration of a solar-powered spacecraft on the surface of Mars. The Materials Adherence Experiment on Pathfinder was designed to measure the degradation of solar arrays due to dust settling out of the atmosphere and blocking light to the solar array, lowering the array power output

Keywords

Mars; aerospace testing; photovoltaic power systems; solar cell arrays; space vehicle power plants; Mars Pathfinder; Mars exploration; Materials Adherence Experiment; array power output; dust settling; solar arrays degradation; solar-powered spacecraft; Acceleration; Aircraft manufacture; Atmospheric measurements; Costs; Degradation; Mars; Optical arrays; Power measurement; Space exploration; Space technology;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, 1997. IECEC-97., Proceedings of the 32nd Intersociety

Conference_Location

Honolulu, HI

Print_ISBN

0-7803-4515-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IECEC.1997.659280

Filename

659280