High voltage solar array technology

Abstract

Hughes R e s e a r c h L a b o r a t o r i e s A Division of Hughes A i r c r a f t Company Malibu, C a l i f o r n i a 90265 A b s t r a c t A r e q u i r e m e n t f o r r e l i a b l e , lightweight, multikilowatt, solar e l e c t r i c s p a c e p o w e r s y st e m s f o r e l c c t r i c propulsion s p a c e c r a f t and high p o w e r c o m m u n i c a t i o n s a t e l l i t e s h a s been e s t a blished in n u m e r o u s studies. A d d i t i o n a l s t u d i e s have shown t h a t t h e High Voltage S o l a r A r r a y s (HVSA) could b e a competitive power s y s t e m a l t e r n a t i v e to conventional power conditioning o p e r a t e d from low voltage a r r a y s . T h e objective of the p r esent work is to develop a b e t t e r understanding of the c o n c e p t s and d e s i g n c r i t e r i a in t h e a r e a s of HVSA power control s y s t e m s and H V S A j s p a c e plasma i n t e r a c t i o n s . In o r d e r to i n v e s t i g a t e the f i r s t a r e a , a low power HVSA b r e a d b o a r d h-s b e e n f a b r i c a t e d and coupled with a c o m p u t e rizcd digital c o n t r o l s y s t e m . s y s t e m c o n t r o l c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s c o m p a r e f a v o rably with t h o s e a c h i c v a h l e with conventional high efficiency power conditioning. T h e i n t e r a c t i o n of a HVSA with t h e s p a c e p l a s m a e n v i r o n m e n t h a s b e e n i n e s t t g a t e d i n a l a r g c volume s i m u l ation facility. f o r p l a s m a power l o s s e s and e l e c t r i c a l b r e a kdown phenomenon which i n d i c a t e that HVSA o p e r a t i o n i n the s p a c e p l a s m a e n v i r o n m e n t 1s well understood and involves only m i n o r penalties. It i s shown thatQuantitative r e s u l t s a r e p r e s e n t e d

Flight Data Analysis for the Photovoltaic Array Space Power Plus Diagnostics Experiment

“…It was rst observed in 1971 by Herron et al 5 during plasma chamber tests of solar arrays biased between §16 kV. Several ground tests examined the role of a dielectric on a conductor in arcing, con rming arcing on dielectric-conductor systems.…”