The Stardust solar array

The Stardust satellite, launched in February 1999, is a seven-year mission to gather material from the comet Wild-2 and return the material to earth in January 2006. The satellite will orbit the sun, traversing distances from a little under 1 AU to 2.72 AU. On April 18th 2002, the spacecraft reached its furthest distance and broke the record for being the farthest spacecraft from the sun powered by solar energy. This paper describes the analysis, design, fabrication, and flight data of the Stardust solar panels. Telemetry data from the solar panels at 2.72 AU are in excellent agreement with flight prediction.