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The role of radiation hard solar cells in minimizing the costs of global satellite communication systemsAn analysis embodied in a PC computer program is presented, which quantitatively demonstrates how the availability of radiation hard solar cells can help minimize the cost of a global satellite communications system. An important distinction between the currently proposed systems, such as Iridium, Odyssey and Ellipsat, is the number of satellites employed and their operating altitudes. Analysis of the major costs associated with implementing these systems shows that operation at orbital altitudes within the earth's radiation belts (10(exp 3) to 10(exp 4)km) can reduce the total cost of a system by several hundred percent, so long as radiation hard components including solar cells can be used. A detailed evaluation of the predicted performance of photovoltaic arrays using several different planar solar cell technologies is given, including commercially available Si and GaAs/Ge, and InP/Si which is currently under development. Several examples of applying the program are given, which show that the end of life (EOL) power density of different technologies can vary by a factor of ten for certain missions. Therefore, although a relatively radiation-soft technology can usually provide the required EOL power by simply increasing the size of the array, the impact upon the total system budget could be unacceptable, due to increased launch and hardware costs. In aggregate, these factors can account for more than a 10% increase in the total system cost. Since the estimated total costs of proposed global-coverage systems range from $1B to $9B, the availability of radiation-hard solar cells could make a decisive difference in the selection of a particular constellation architecture.
Document ID
19960045574
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Summers, Geoffrey P.
(Naval Research Lab. Washington, DC United States)
Walters, Robert J.
(Naval Research Lab. Washington, DC United States)
Messenger, Scott R.
(Sachs/Freeman Associates, Inc. Landover, MD United States)
Burke, Edward A.
(Sachs/Freeman Associates, Inc. Landover, MD United States)
Date Acquired
August 17, 2013
Publication Date
February 1, 1996
Publication Information
Publication: Space Photovoltaic Research and Technology 1995
Subject Category
Spacecraft Propulsion And Power
Accession Number
96N32477
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
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