جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه « solar array » در نشریات گروه « مکانیک »

Supplying the energy demanded by spacecraft and satellites is an ever-increasing need. As a result, it is an active field in developing space technologies. In addition to the commonly used rigid substrate solar arrays, flexible substrate and concentrator solar arrays are other available categories. This paper reviewed the developments and commercial technologies in each category. The flexible solar arrays, implemented in several spacecraft during the last two decades, have recently attracted attention in satellites. It seems that these arrays will replace rigid arrays in the near term due to their higher specific power and smaller stow volume than rigid arrays.

In this paper, the feasibility and performance of using solar arrays equipped with sun concentrators, along with other conventional solar array structures, in CubeSats, is investigated for the first time. For this purpose, seven different structures of solar arrays have been defined and implemented for more than 24 different CubeSat configurations from 0.25U to 27U. Then, by calculating important system-level parameters such as power generation density, power generation cost, reliability of solar arrays, and also a newly proposed parameter, called shape fit factor, the performance of these structures for the introduced configurations are evaluated and compared. To this end, and by considering rational coefficients, a cost function consisting of the four above-mentioned parameters is defined as the degree of merit of different solar array structures used in each CubeSat configuration. The results show that alongside the use of deployable solar arrays, using concentrating solar arrays can provide new capabilities for CubeSats to overcome the challenge of generating sufficient power.

This paper intends to study the impacts of orbit parameters change and evaluate their importance in Electrical Power Subsystem (EPS) design. Two main objectives have been followed in this research: 1) understanding the impacts of the orbital parameters change and the mechanisms of their interactions with the EPS design and operation, 2) evaluation of the importance of their effects. To this end, a typical cube satellite has been considered in different LEO orbits, to investigate the impacts of variation in the main orbit parameters e. g. altitude and inclination angle. Then the sizing, operation and performance of power sources have been evaluated via comparing the results of in-orbit simulations of EPS operation. In addition, some indirect impacts of the orbit parameters change are evaluated, by analysis and calculation of the interaction between EPS and other subsystems such as Telecommunication and Telemetery (TMTC), Attitude Determination and Control Subsystem (ADCS) and Thermal Control. The results show how the sizing and operation of solar array and battery are under the influence of orbit parameters change via certain factors such as orbit period, duration and the fraction of eclipse to sunlit phases, received solar irradiance by solar panels, and received thermal fluxes from the sun. According to the acquired results, any altitude increment leads to have better margins in power source sizing but there is an optimum value for inclination angle from this point of view.