Thin Flexible IMM Solar Array

NASA technology objectives have traditionally included solar arrays with high specific power, high power capability, high voltage capability, compact packaging, and modularity for improved schedule responsiveness, standardization, qualification traceability, automation, and lowered cost. Lightweight, high power solar arrays with compact packaging is a key enabling technology for meeting NASA goals of establishing a capability for Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP), as well as for long-duration manned missions. In particular, providing tens to hundreds of kilowatts can be enabling for outer planetary missions, allowing improved SEP performance during cruise, and providing significant power (hundreds of watts) for the objective mission, despite the minimal sunlight available at the asteroid belt, Jupiter and beyond. The THINS/ROSA array also has the advantages of improved electromagnetic cleanliness because of the capability for flex-circuit back-wiring, encapsulation, and the continuity of coverglass materials to create a continuous grounded, shielded enclosure. Such a technology can be enabling for high performance electric and magnetic field instruments often used on NASA science spacecraft, such as THEMIS, MMS, and Maven, and could also enable the higher voltages needed for direct drive SEP approaches.

The ability to fit tens of kilowatts in a compact stowage envelope is of great benefit to commercial missions, where high power translates directly to improved spacecraft revenue. Improvements in reliability and reduced costs are also of great interest to commercial spacecraft suppliers, since the solar array can often drive the total spacecraft and launch costs, and reliability is needed to avoid the failures that drove up costs of commercial missions significantly in recent years. The ability to package high power with compactness can significantly reduce launch costs by enabling smaller, economical launch vehicles, and high efficiency reduces cost by reducing solar array area and therefore the required hardware and station-keeping costs. The modularity concept provides a means of improving process control and standardization to improve reliability and reduce the cost of manufacturing and qualification. Significant interest in this technology has been expressed from commercial spacecraft providers such as Boeing, Orbital Sciences and Loral. Vanguard has been working extensively with Boeing on its development of high power, flexible arrays, such as the Integrated Blanket Interconnect System (IBIS), which is a version of Boeing's High Power Solar Array (HPSA) that incorporated earlier versions of THINS, and which would benefit from the technology maturation achievable with the continuation of this SBIR. More »