Improved Solar Cell Power for Cubesats

In the Department of Defense (DoD), as well as across the spaceflight industry, there is a rapidly growing need for Nanosatellites (Nanosat) that can support higher performance missions.By design, these satellites utilize common components and architectures to reduce production costs.As more involved technologies and capabilities are built into nanosats, higher peak and continuous power is required to allow them to utilize these technologies.In order to capitalize on these capabilities for both tactical and scientific value, these missions will require increased power to be available from the same Nanosat platform. Missions are now rapidly growing to the 6U-12U size and power requirements continue to grow. MMA Design LLC is currently developing a steerable solar array for Nanosat spacecraft that will support this next class of Nanosatellites.This technology will allow Nanosat solar arrays to be continuously adjusted (pointed) to the sun and simultaneously produce the highest power output possible to support the mission.MMA Designs steerable solar array will enable the DoD to meet future NanoSat mission needs and will provide the capability to deliver significant increases in continuous spacecraft power within a compact low mass solar array package.