The Aerospace Corporation, NASA Glenn Research Center, Lockheed-Martin, and ILC Dover over the past two years have been engaged in developing a Multifunctional Inflatable Structure for the Powersphere Concept under contract with NASA (NAS3-01115). The Powersphere concept consists of a relatively large spherical solar array, which would be deployed from a microsatellite. The Powersphere structure and the deployment method was patented by the Aerospace Corporation (U.S. Patent Numbers 6,284,966 B 1 and 6,3 18,675). The work on this project has resulted in a number of technological innovations in the state of the art for integrating flexible thin-film solar cells with flex circuit harness technology and inflatable ultraviolet-light-rigidizable structures. The specific power, specific volume, for the Powersphere are presented in Figures 1 and 2 as a function of solar cell technology and efficiency. The Powersphere will enable microsatellite missions across NASA enterprises and DoD missions by providing ample electric power at an affordable cost. The Powersphere design provides attitude-independent electric power and thermal control for an enclosed microsatellite payload. The design is scalable, robust in high radiation environments and provides sufficient electric power to allow the use of electric propulsion. Electric propulsion enables precise positioning of microsatellites which is required for inspectors that would be deployed to inspect the International Space Station, Space Shuttle or large unmanned spacecraft. The Powersphere allows for efficient launch packaging versus deployed volume as shown in Figure 3.


    Zugriff

    Zugriff über TIB

    Verfügbarkeit in meiner Bibliothek prüfen


    Exportieren, teilen und zitieren



    Titel :

    Thin Film Technology Development for the Powersphere


    Beteiligte:

    Erscheinungsdatum :

    2003-01-01


    Medientyp :

    Preprint


    Format :

    Keine Angabe


    Sprache :

    Englisch




    Thin Film Technology Development for the PowerSphere

    E. J. Simburger / J. H. Matsumoto / T. W. Giants et al. | NTIS | 2005


    ITO-MgF2 Film Development for PowerSphere Polymer Surface Protection

    Hambourger, Paul / Kerslake, Thomas / Waters, Deborah | AIAA | 2004


    Fabrication and Testing of a PowerSphere Engineering Development Unit

    Simburger, Edward / Giants, Thomas / Matsumoto, James et al. | AIAA | 2005


    Multifunctional structures for the PowerSphere concept

    Simburger, Edward / Matsumoto, James / Hinkley, David et al. | AIAA | 2001