The Living Plume Shield (LIPS-II) satellite was launched by the Naval Research Laboratory on 10 February 1983. The satellite has three double-sided solarpanels to provide electrical power. One side of one panel consists of 300 each 2 cm x 2 cm gallium arsenide (GaAs) solar cells. The GaAs cells were provided by the Air Force in a cooperative effort to build, test, qualify, and fly a GaAs solar panel. Data from the panel is acquired irregularly due to the requirement that the satellite be over a tracking station when the panel is sunlit in order to receive data. Therefore, considerable statistical variances exist in the data and an initial 7.3 % power loss in the first 30 days of orbit is still unexplained. After over 900 days in orbit, the panel degradation appears to have leveled off. Low energy proton irradiation tests are being conducted in LISP type GaAs cells to study the panel degradation, particularly due to edge effects. Data analysis results will be summarized.
New insight into the LIPS-II GaAs solar panel performance
Neue Erkenntnisse ueber die Leistung der GaAs-Solarzellen-Panel des LIPS-II-Satelliten
1985
4 Seiten, 6 Bilder, 5 Quellen
Conference paper
English
LIPS III-burst anneal solar array experiment
Tema Archive | 1989
|Radiation testing of GaAs on CRRES and LIPS experiment
NTRS | 1984
|ASEC/Air Force LIPS-3 test panel results
Tema Archive | 1988
|Status of LIPS-II GaAs after five years in orbit
Tema Archive | 1988
|Engineering Index Backfile | 1950