In orbit performances of the UNISAT-3 solar arrays

摘要

UNISAT program was established in late nineties at Scuola di Ingegneria Aerospaziale of Universita di Roma "La Sapienza". It is an educational project with the aim to involve students, researchers and professors in designing, manufacturing and operating in orbit small microsatellites,. In the framework of this project four microsatellites have already been designed and manufactured. Most of the UNISAT satellites components are based on commercial off the shelf (COTS) components such as solar cells. This paper describes UNISAT-3 photovoltaic system that was realized with different kind of solar cells exploiting different technologies with the aim to verify their on-orbit behavior. Some UNISAT-3 solar array was realized using silicon monochristalline terrestrial grade solar cells glued to the panel with an enhanced method in order to make them withstand launch and space environment loads. Other arrays were manufactured with mono-crystalline silicon high efficiency space qualified solar cells and multi-junction solar cells. Data collected from the on-orbit tested solar cells are depicted and discussed.