MEGA-ROSA-EX IS AN ENHANCED, HIGHER STIFFNESS, HIGHER SUN-POINTING ACCURACY, HIGHER STRENGTH, HIGHER SPECIF…

Public award description

MEGA-ROSA-EX IS AN ENHANCED, HIGHER STIFFNESS, HIGHER SUN-POINTING ACCURACY, HIGHER STRENGTH, HIGHER SPECIFIC POWER AND EVEN LARGER OVERALL POWER / DEPLOYED SIZE / STOWED PACKAGING CAPABILITY CONFIGURATION OF THE INNOVATIVE MEGA-ROSA TECHNOLOGY. MEGA-ROSA, NAMED FOR MEGA ROLL-OUT SOLAR ARRAY, IS A HIGHLY-MODULARIZED AND EXTREMELY-SCALABLE ROSA-BASED SOLAR ARRAY ARCHITECTURE THAT PROVIDES IMMENSE POWER LEVEL RANGE CAPABILITY FROM 100KW TO MULTIPLE MEGAWATTS IN SIZE, FOR NASA EXPLORATION INITIATIVE AND PLANETARY MISSIONS SUCH AS SEP SPACE-TUG AND LARGE-SCALE SEP-POWERED PLANETARY APPLICATIONS. THE FURTHER-ADVANCED/OPTIMIZED VERSIONS OF MEGA-ROSA PROPOSED(MEGA-ROSA EX),PROMISE TO INCREASE ITS DEPLOYED STIFFNESS, STRENGTH AND DEPLOYED SIZE/PACKAGING CAPABILITY PERFORMANCE WELL BEYOND THE EXCELLENT VALUES ALREADY SHOWN TO BE OBTAINABLE WITH THE BASELINE "STANDARD" HIGH-PACKAGING EFFICIENCY MEGA-ROSA DESIGN. THE SIGNIFICANT AND REVOLUTIONARY END-USER BENEFITS OF THE MEGA-ROSA EX TECHNOLOGY ADVANCES ARE: INCREASED DEPLOYED STIFFNESS / SUN-POINTING ACCURACY - THE MEGA-ROSA-EX CONFIGURATIONS PROPOSED TO BE DEVELOPED DURING THE PHASE 1 PROGRAM WILL ALLOW SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER DEPLOYED STIFFNESS (3-5 TIMES HIGHER THAN THE STANDARD BASELINE MEGA-ROSA CONFIGURATIONS), AND THE RESULTING LOWER PV BLANKET-PLANE DISPLACEMENTS / HIGHER WING SUN-POINTING ACCURACY ACHIEVED UNDER EXPECTED ON-ORBIT ACCELERATIONS WILL ENABLE THE USE OF CURRENTLY-AVAILABLE AND COST-LOWERING FLEX-BLANKET PV CONCENTRATION SYSTEMS. THE USE OF THESE CONCENTRATING METHODS TO REDUCE THE AMOUNT OF EXPENSIVE HIGH-PERFORMANCE PHOTOVOLTAICS IS A NECESSITY TO MAKE COST-VIABLE MANY OF THE PLANNED NASA HIGH-POWER SEP AND PLANETARY MISSIONS. CERTAIN SEP-POWERED TUG AND PLANETARY SPACECRAFT APPLICATIONS HAVE MISSION SCENARIOS WITH BURN EVENTS/MANEUVERS THAT IMPOSE HIGH ACCELERATIONS. THE MEGA-ROSA EX CONFIGURATIONS PROPOSED ARE CAPABLE OF ACHIEVING THESE ACCELS. UP TO 0.25 G'S AND HIGHER.