A Stackable Multi-MPPT Power Architecture With Paralleled Inputs for Scalable CubeSat Solar Energy Harvesting

A Stackable Multi-MPPT Power Architecture With Paralleled Inputs for Scalable CubeSat Solar Energy Harvesting

Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, UT

In traditional CubeSat configurations, the Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) circuit acts as a critical single point of failure because all harvested solar energy is funneled through a single, non-redundant conversion stage. Consequently, the failure of this individual component completely blocks power delivery to the system, permanently stranding otherwise healthy solar arrays and batteries and causing catastrophic mission termination.

This work introduces a modular, stackable solar energy architecture that distributes power conditioning across multiple identical, autonomous modules connected to shared PV and battery buses. By relying purely on analog input-voltage regulation at a common operating point, it eliminates radiation-vulnerable digital communication links while utilizing output-level reverse-current isolation to ensure single-module failures only cause graceful capacity degradation rather than total mission loss.