Title :
LEO effects on conventional and unconventional solar cell cover materials
Author_Institution :
Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Technol., Pasadena, CA, USA
Abstract :
In 1984, the LDEF (Long Duration Exposure Facility) was placed in LEO (low Earth orbit) for a mission planned to last approximately one year. The effects of the LDEF mission environment (micrometeorite/debris impacts, atomic, atomic oxygen, UV, and particulate radiation) on the samples are described. The relative importance of these interactions is highly dependent on orbital altitude. There is no evidence that the impacts with the test samples (including solar cells) caused any electrical degradation. Evidence from a number of LDEF experiments suggests that the majority of the impacts observed on this experiment were of space debris, rather than micrometeorite origin
Keywords :
aerospace testing; semiconductor device testing; solar cells; space vehicle power plants; LDEF; LEO; Long Duration Exposure Facility; aerospace testing; artificial satellites; cover materials; electrical degradation; low Earth orbit; mission environment; solar cell; space power; Aerospace materials; Bonding; Cerium; Low earth orbit satellites; Photovoltaic cells; Rough surfaces; Sheet materials; Silver; Surface roughness; Testing;
Conference_Titel :
Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1991., Conference Record of the Twenty Second IEEE
Conference_Location :
Las Vegas, NV
Print_ISBN :
0-87942-636-5
DOI :
10.1109/PVSC.1991.169439
