Session
Session IV: LEO MIssions
Abstract
The power subsystem is vital to any spacecraft operation, making solar cells a valuable aspect. Critical to all spacecraft, they provide constant charge to the batteries and produce power for the electronics onboard. Solar cells have been engineered for large commercial and military space missions, up to thousand kilogram class satellites, and may not fit the requirements for smaller CubeSat form factors. Additionally, this restrains CubeSats from using higher voltage busses due to the mismatch in solar cell scaling. The purpose of this project is to retool the solar cell CIC (Solar Cell Interconnects Coverglass) to satisfy the small satellite system requirements while having the most effective surface area and providing the necessary wattage. We have undertaken an experimental process to dice commercial solar cells to customize them for the CXBN-2 (Cosmic X-Ray Background NanoSat 2) mission. CXBN-2 is constrained by having two scientific payloads extruding outward from the space frame in opposite directions that make fitting large format solar cells impossible. Staff and students from the Morehead State University Space Science Center and the Micro-Nano Technology Center at the University of Louisville are developing a process to dice existing commercial off the shelf solar cells to facilitate mission customization. The CXBN-2 mission provides an opportunity to develop these processes. This project will reveal the design decisions, dicing, testing, and model verification of the modified solar cells that will be mounted onto the spacecraft body and deployable solar panels, achieving higher power system performance.
Retooling Space Solar Cell System CIC for CXBN-2
The power subsystem is vital to any spacecraft operation, making solar cells a valuable aspect. Critical to all spacecraft, they provide constant charge to the batteries and produce power for the electronics onboard. Solar cells have been engineered for large commercial and military space missions, up to thousand kilogram class satellites, and may not fit the requirements for smaller CubeSat form factors. Additionally, this restrains CubeSats from using higher voltage busses due to the mismatch in solar cell scaling. The purpose of this project is to retool the solar cell CIC (Solar Cell Interconnects Coverglass) to satisfy the small satellite system requirements while having the most effective surface area and providing the necessary wattage. We have undertaken an experimental process to dice commercial solar cells to customize them for the CXBN-2 (Cosmic X-Ray Background NanoSat 2) mission. CXBN-2 is constrained by having two scientific payloads extruding outward from the space frame in opposite directions that make fitting large format solar cells impossible. Staff and students from the Morehead State University Space Science Center and the Micro-Nano Technology Center at the University of Louisville are developing a process to dice existing commercial off the shelf solar cells to facilitate mission customization. The CXBN-2 mission provides an opportunity to develop these processes. This project will reveal the design decisions, dicing, testing, and model verification of the modified solar cells that will be mounted onto the spacecraft body and deployable solar panels, achieving higher power system performance.
