A lightweight inflatable solar array

Conference · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:163376

Malone, P K; Williams, G T ^[1]

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1. L`Garde, Inc., Tustin, CA (United States)

L`Garde and Phillips Laboratory have developed a light weight deployable solar array wing in the 200-1000 watt range, on the Inflatable Torus Solar Array Technology Demonstration (ITSAT Demo) Project. The power density of a flight unit could be as high as 93 W/kg for a 200 Watt-class wing, including structure and deployment mechanisms. In Phase 1, a proof of concept torus and array was constructed and deployed in the laboratory. During Phase 2, a revised torus and array were constructed and tested at L`Garde and the Naval Research Lab. The qualification tests included random vibration, deployment in a thermal vacuum chamber, natural frequency determination, and thermal cycling. The flight design uses 2 mil thick crystalline Si cells on an AO protected flexible Kapton film substrate folded accordion style for stowage. The support structure is a rectangular frame comprised of two inflated then rigidized cylinders, the array stowage box and its cover. The cylinders, flattened, folded and stored for launch, are deployed by inflating with N{sub 2} and rigidized by straining the cylinder laminate material controllably beyond the elastic limit. The engineering protoflight array was designed for optimum power density but, due to availability, some of the components came from excess production runs. Because of this, the actual power density of the test article was 59 W/kg, or 36% less than the baseline flight array. However, using components as designed, the projected 93 w/kg can be achieved. Due to simple deployment mechanism, the cost of an ITSAT-type solar array is about one-half that of competing systems.

• OSTI ID: 163376
• Report Number(s): CONF-950729--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
DESIGN
OPERATION
PERFORMANCE TESTING
POWER DENSITY
SATELLITES
SILICON SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR CELL ARRAYS
SPACECRAFT POWER SUPPLIES
SUPPORTS
WEIGHT