One year of flight data from the PASP-Plus experiment

The PASP-Plus (Photovoltaic Array Space Power Plus Diagnostics) program is a photovoltaic experiment which is flying on the Air Force satellite APEX (Advanced Photovoltaic and Electronics Experiments). The satellite was launched on August 3, 1994 with a Pegasus low-cost launch vehicle. There are two other small experiments on APEX, however PASP-Plus is the largest, uses the most power, and accounts for the largest portion of the data requirements. The satellite is in an elliptical orbit with an apogee of 2552 km and a perigee of 363 km. The inclination is 70 degrees. The PASP-Plus experiment consists of twelve photovoltaic panels containing a total of sixteen separate cell modules. Two of the modules are concentrator modules, while the rest are planar. There are several different solar cell types flying on PASP-Plus including silicon, GaAs on germanium substrates, InP, amorphous silicon, and three multi-bandgap cells. The purpose of this paper is to present some of the data from the first year of the PASP-Plus flight. Cell performance and module thermal performance will be discussed as well as other relevant data.