Dawn Spacecraft Solar Panels

Dawn s solar panel array measures 19 7 metres from tip to tip when fully extended.

Dawn spacecraft solar panels.

Turns out you won t find a standard 72 cell silicon solar panel on any nasa spacecraft. The four ton juno spacecraft carries three 30 foot long 9 meter solar arrays festooned with 18 698 individual solar cells. Power for spacecraft propulsion electric propulsion sometimes called solar electric propulsion. 5 9 years 54 of the time in space as of sep.

Record breaking use of solar electric propulsion. The spacecraft s two 2 3 x 8 3 meter solar panels are composed of ingap ingaas ge triple junction cells which provide 10 3 kw at 1 au 1 3 kw at end of life at 3 au. For both uses a key figure of merit of the solar panels is the specific power watts generated divided by solar array mass which indicates on a relative basis how much. In the outer solar system radioisotope thermoelectric generators rtgs are used as a source of power.

With its solar arrays fully extended dawn is 19 7 m 65 ft wide. The dawn spacecraft was propelled by three xenon ion thrusters derived from nstar technology used by the deep space 1 spacecraft using one at a time. Dawn can no longer keep its antennae trained on earth to communicate with mission control or turn its solar panels to the sun to recharge. As a result nasa glenn in conjunction with the larger tech and university communities has.

Currently it s in orbit around the dwarf planet ceres where it will remain for decades. The missions are too long and the environment is too harsh alternating between extreme heat and extreme cold flush with radioactivity for terrestrial solar. The main antenna is five feet in diameter. The solar arrays have a total area of 36 4 m 2 392 sq ft.

Two solar panel wings extend 19 7 m tip to tip and. Launched in 2011 juno is the first solar powered spacecraft designed to operate at such a great distance from the sun. That s why the surface area of solar panels required to generate adequate power is quite large. The dawn spacecraft is generally box shaped 1 64 x 1 27 x 1 77 m and made of aluminum and graphite composite with a dry mass of 747 1 kg and a fueled launch mass of 1217 7 kg.

Nasa s dawn spacecraft turned science fiction into science fact by using ion propulsion to explore the two largest bodies in the main asteroid belt vesta and ceres. 25 700 mph 2 7x any prior spacecraft and nearly equal to the velocity provided by dawn s delta launch vehicle. 7 2018 key mission findings. The dawn spacecraft launched 11 years ago to visit the two largest objects in the main asteroid belt.

Only a few spacecraft before have used this system. Power to run the sensors active heating cooling and telemetry. Reviews this was largely because of the. 1 history the first spacecraft to use solar panels was the vanguard 1 satellite lancé by the us in 1958.

The spacecraft core is a graphite composite cylinder with the titanium hydrazine and xenon tanks mounted inside.