Photovoltaic Investigation on the Lunar Surface (PILS) – PV Testbed for Lunar Landers

The PILS (Photovoltaic Investigation on the Lunar Surface) platform provides an opportunity to test state of the art solar cell technologies on the lunar surface. The first PILS mission is scheduled to operate on the lunar surface at Lacus Mortis in late 2022 onboard the Astrobotic Peregrine lander. The platform, designed, built, and tested at the NASA Glenn Research Center, includes multiple solar cell technologies from various vendors that could be used for future lunar missions and a solar charging experiment to shape design considerations of high voltage solar arrays on the Moon. This presentation will describe the mission requirements, design considerations, and ground testing performed prior to spacecraft integration. Considerations for future PILS missions will also be discussed.