The ASGA experiment on EURECA platform: testing of advanced GaAs solar cells in LEO

Abstract

The authors describe the problems faced in designing, manufacturing, and testing flight hardware and, in particular, in fabricating and testing concentrator and 100 mu m thick GaAs solar cells. The Advanced Solar GaAs Array (ASGA) experiment is designed to evaluate gallium arsenide solar cells and concentrator optics in space. It will be flown on the EUropean REtrievable CArrier (EURECA) for six months. The experiment configuration is defined on the basis of the EURECA mission analysis (orbit condition, natural environment) and includes solar cells of different types, with different junction depths and different thicknesses. The experiment also includes a concentrator solar array which is designed to be representative of a section of a full-size spacecraft array.<>