Analysis Of Costs Of Gallium Arsenide And Silicon Solar Arrays For Space Power Applications

Author : National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781723394614
Total Pages : 26 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (946 download)

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Download or read book Analysis of Costs of Gallium Arsenide and Silicon Solar Arrays for Space Power Applications written by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-07-20 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A parametric analysis was performed to compare the costs of silicon and gallium arsenide arrays for Earth orbital missions. The missions included electric power in low Earth orbit (LEO), electric power in geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO), and power for electric propulsion of a LEO to GEO orbit transfer mission. Inputs to the analysis for all missions included launch and purchase costs of the array. For the orbit transfer mission, the launch and purchase costs of the electric propulsion system were added. Radiation flux as a function of altitude and rediation tolerance as a function of cell type were used to determine power degradation for each mission. Curves were generated that show the sensitivity of launch-array cost and total mission cost to a variety of input parameters for each mission. These parameters included mission duration, cover glass thickness, array specific cost, array specific mass, and solar cell efficiency. Solar concentration was considered and the sensitivities of cost to concentration ratio, concentrator costs, and concentrator mass were also evaluated. Results indicate that solar cell development should give a high priority to reducing array costs and that the development of low cost, lightweight, solar concentrators should be pursued. Jefferies, K. S. Glenn Research Center NASA-TP-1811, E-536 RTOP 506-55-72