IGF::OT::IGF THE PROPOSED TECHNOLOGY IS A REVOLUTIONARY SOLAR ARRAY ADVANCEMENT THAT RELIES ON A STRUCTURAL…

Public award description

IGF::OT::IGF THE PROPOSED TECHNOLOGY IS A REVOLUTIONARY SOLAR ARRAY ADVANCEMENT THAT RELIES ON A STRUCTURALLY OPTIMIZED PLATFORM TO PROVIDE UNPARALLELED SPECIFIC-PERFORMANCE AND AFFORDABILITY FOR EXTREMELY LARGE AREA SOLAR ARRAYS. THE PROPOSED TECHNOLOGY IS COMPRISED OF A CENTRAL BEAM TENSIONED MEMBRANE ARCHITECTURE THAT LEVERAGES KEY HERITAGE TECHNOLOGY ELEMENTS TO PROVIDE LOW-RISK AND HIGH END-USER ACCEPTANCE. THE PROPOSED TECHNOLOGY WILL ENABLE EMERGING SOLAR ELECTRIC PROPULSION SPACE SCIENCE AND EXPLORATION MISSIONS THROUGH ULTRA-AFFORDABILITY, ULTRA-LIGHTWEIGHT, ULTRA-COMPACT STOWAGE VOLUME, DESIGN SIMPLICITY, ROBUSTNESS AND HIGH DAMAGE TOLERANCE, BROAD SCALABILITY, HIGH STRENGTH/STIFFNESS, HIGH VOLTAGE AND HIGH/LOW TEMPERATURE OPERATION CAPABILITY WITHIN MANY ENVIRONMENTS. ONCE COMPLETELY OPTIMIZED THROUGH THE PROPOSED SBIR PROGRAM THE PROPOSED TECHNOLOGY PROMISES TO PROVIDE NASA/INDUSTRY A NEAR-TERM AND LOW-RISK SOLAR ARRAY SYSTEM THAT PROVIDES REVOLUTIONARY PERFORMANCE IN TERMS OF HIGH SPECIFIC POWER (>300 UP TO 500 W/KG BOL AT THE WING LEVEL, PV-BLANKET DEPENDENT), AFFORDABILITY (UP TO 40% COST SAVINGS AT THE ARRAY LEVEL, PV-BLANKET DEPENDENT), ULTRA-LIGHTWEIGHT, HIGH DEPLOYED STIFFNESS (10X BETTER THAN CURRENT ARRAYS), HIGH DEPLOYED STRENGTH (10X BETTER THAN CURRENT ARRAYS), COMPACT STOWAGE VOLUME (>70-80 KW/M3 BOL, 10X TIMES BETTER THAN CURRENT ARRAYS), HIGH RELIABILITY, HIGH RADIATION TOLERANCE, HIGH VOLTAGE OPERATION CAPABILITY (>200 VDC), SCALABILITY (500W TO 100'S OF KW), AND LILT/HIHT OPERATION.