Stretched-Lens Photovoltaic Concentrator Arrays for NASA's Moon/Mars Exploration Missions

摘要

Over the past five years, ENTECH, NASA, ABLE, Auburn, and several other organizations have been developing and refining a unique, high-efficiency, ultra-light, highly scalable solar photovoltaic concentrator technology for space power. The Stretched Lens Array (SLA) offers state-of-the-art performance in the following metrics: areal power density (W/m), specific power (W/kg), stowed power density (kW/m), operating voltage (V), and array power capacity (kW to multi-MW). The SLA concept fits neatly into NASA’s recently announced new vision for robotic and human exploration missions to the Moon and to Mars and beyond. These bold new exploration missions will require large amounts of power for spacecraft, from electric propulsion to large-scale surface operations. Evolution of this concept from the SCARLET array on Deep Space 1 in 1998 to today’s rigid-panel SLA to tomorrow’s flexible-blanket SLA on ABLE Engineering’s SquareRigger platform shows a clear path to multi-MW-class SLA systems in the 1,000 W/kg specific power range over the next two decades. These advanced SLA systems could provide the enabling power for many of the planned NASA exploration missions. This paper will describe recent advancements in the SLA technology, and how this relates to the new NASA Moon/Mars exploration vision.