Advanced Solar Panel Concentrator Experiment (ASPaCE)

Author

Whalen, Brian P.

Author_Institution

Allied-Signal Tech. Services Corp., Washington, DC, USA

Volume

1

fYear

1997

fDate

27 Jul-1 Aug 1997

Firstpage

391

Abstract

The US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is beginning Phase II development for the Advanced Solar Panel Concentrator Experiment (ASPaCE). Phase I showed that flexible thin film reflectors can work successfully in a deployable trough concentrator. Thin film reflectors add several advantages to this concentrator including compact stowage, increased power from conventional fold-out solar panels, and solar cell exposure during orbit transfer. Testing on a proof-of-concept model has been completed (Phase I) and correlation to a large scale flight model is under way. In Phase II a large scale reflector of the order of 6 meters by 2.5 meters is being built for deployment and deformation testing and a flight quality array is being designed

Keywords

deformation; mirrors; solar cell arrays; solar energy concentrators; space vehicle power plants; testing; 2.5 m; 6 m; Advanced Solar Panel Concentrator Experiment; US Naval Research Laboratory; deformation testing; deployable trough concentrator; flexible thin film reflectors; flight quality array design; large scale flight model; large scale reflector; orbit transfer; reflector thermal vacuum testing; solar cell exposure; Aerospace simulation; NASA; Optical films; Photovoltaic cells; Prototypes; Silver; Substrates; System testing; Transistors; Virtual prototyping;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, 1997. IECEC-97., Proceedings of the 32nd Intersociety

Conference_Location

Honolulu, HI

Print_ISBN

0-7803-4515-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IECEC.1997.659220

Filename

659220