Advanced electrostatically clean solar array panel design using reflective aperture grids

An improved design for an electrostatically clean solar array (ECSA) is described. The baseline ECSA uses a frontside shield with apertures (FSA) to establish a continuously grounded frontside plane, and cover exposed conductors. The improved design adds a tent-shaped reflective cover onto the FSA which collects the energy that would normally be lost in the area covered by the FSA, including the overlap area used to bond the FSA to the coverslides. An electrostatic analysis of this reflective FSA (RFSA) design showed that it should be equally as effective in eliminating the fields surrounding a solar panel. A test model of a RFSA was fabricated and applied to a conventional ECSA solar panel coupon. It was found that the power lost in modifying a panel for electrostatic cleanliness could be regained using this approach.