Session
Session 6: Subsystems
Abstract
For universities, solar panels can be some of the highest expenditures of CubeSat development. In response, groups often opt to purchase solar panels from commercial providers to avoid in-house production complications; unfortunately, this option greatly restricts subsystem customizability and design flexibility. For those groups that choose to build, test and integrate solar panels internally, the process can turn into a monumental effort due to the lack of readily-available validated procedures outside of industry. In addition to being labor and cost intensive, traditional methods of solar panel fabrication contain intrinsic inefficiencies that compromise the subsystem’s overall reliability and reproducibility. Using techniques developed by University of Colorado Boulder and previously validated by University of Michigan, that paradigm is being shifted. The procedure uses a double-sided adhesive tape along with surface mounted tabs as a simplified method for mounting; it can be adapted to purely use silver epoxy if additional tabs cannot be procured. The solar panel fabrication techniques and testing results from the MinXSS and QB50-Challenger satellite will be presented, demonstrating substantial improvements to subsystem reliability, performance, and manufacturability. These results will be affirmed by the highly promising on-orbit results from MinXSS. Two procedures will be outlined, both of which can be readily adapted for a variety of solar cells and panel configurations. Overall, these procedures empower cost and time-constrained groups to fabricate solar panels to their unique system specifications, providing the option of high-performance panel production in a single day.
Presentation
Advancement, Testing and Validation of an Innovative SmallSat Solar Panel Fabrication Process
For universities, solar panels can be some of the highest expenditures of CubeSat development. In response, groups often opt to purchase solar panels from commercial providers to avoid in-house production complications; unfortunately, this option greatly restricts subsystem customizability and design flexibility. For those groups that choose to build, test and integrate solar panels internally, the process can turn into a monumental effort due to the lack of readily-available validated procedures outside of industry. In addition to being labor and cost intensive, traditional methods of solar panel fabrication contain intrinsic inefficiencies that compromise the subsystem’s overall reliability and reproducibility. Using techniques developed by University of Colorado Boulder and previously validated by University of Michigan, that paradigm is being shifted. The procedure uses a double-sided adhesive tape along with surface mounted tabs as a simplified method for mounting; it can be adapted to purely use silver epoxy if additional tabs cannot be procured. The solar panel fabrication techniques and testing results from the MinXSS and QB50-Challenger satellite will be presented, demonstrating substantial improvements to subsystem reliability, performance, and manufacturability. These results will be affirmed by the highly promising on-orbit results from MinXSS. Two procedures will be outlined, both of which can be readily adapted for a variety of solar cells and panel configurations. Overall, these procedures empower cost and time-constrained groups to fabricate solar panels to their unique system specifications, providing the option of high-performance panel production in a single day.
