Radiation-Hardened Stretched Lens Array

Over the past six years, ENTECH, Auburn, NASA, and other organizations have developed a new space photovoltaic array called the Stretched Lens Array (SLA), which offers unprecedented performance (e.g., >80 kW/cu.m. stowed power, >300 W/sq.m. areal power, and >300 W/kg specific power in the very near term) and cost-effectiveness (>75% savings in $/W compared to planar high-efficiency arrays). SLA achieves these outstanding attributes by employing flexible Fresnel lenses for optical concentration (e.g., 8X), thereby minimizing solar cell area, mass, and cost. SLA's small cell size (85% less cell area than planar high-efficiency arrays) also allows super-insulation and super-shielding of the solar cells to enable high-voltage operation and radiation hardness in the space environment. Recent studies show that SLA offers a 3-4X advantage over competing arrays in end-of-life specific power for high-radiation NASA Exploration missions (solar electric propulsion tugs flying through the Earth's radiation belts multiple times). SLA offers these same advantages for DOD missions, especially those with very high radiation environments (natural and man-made). ENTECH and Auburn propose to develop a radiation-hardened version of SLA for DOD missions. This rad-hard SLA will offer unequaled performance for many future DOD missions, with widespread applicability to NASA and commercial missions as well.