Title :
Results from the Goddard Space Flight Center´s Long Duration Exposure Facility solar array component test
Author :
Gaddy, Edward M.
Author_Institution :
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
Abstract :
A shuttle placed the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) in space in April 1984 and another shuttle retrieved it in January 1990. The Goddard Space Flight Center supplied a test plate for the LDEF. Conductively coated covers on the test plate demonstrated that they and that several means of connecting to them withstand prolonged exposure to the low Earth orbit (LEO) space environment. Bare solar cells and solar cells with various thicknesses of covers provided data on cell degradation due to hard particle radiation for comparison to ground based predictions. For bare cells, the measured degradation is significantly greater than the predictions. For covered cells, the uncertainty in the measured degradation and the predictions invalidated the comparison. Solar cells covered with fused silica covers having ultraviolet filters and solar cells covered with fused silica covers without ultraviolet filters did not give useful information on the value of the filter
Keywords :
aerospace test facilities; aerospace testing; photovoltaic power systems; semiconductor device testing; solar cell arrays; solar cells; space vehicle power plants; Goddard Space Flight Center; LEO; Long Duration Exposure Facility; cell degradation; conductively coated covers; fused silica covers; hard particle radiation; low Earth orbit; solar array component test; space environment; space power; ultraviolet filters; Degradation; Extraterrestrial measurements; Information filtering; Information filters; Joining processes; Low earth orbit satellites; Photovoltaic cells; Silicon compounds; Space shuttles; Testing;
Conference_Titel :
Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, 1994., Conference Record of the Twenty Fourth. IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference - 1994, 1994 IEEE First World Conference on
Conference_Location :
Waikoloa, HI
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-1460-3
DOI :
10.1109/WCPEC.1994.520756
