Space Power Applications

ENTECH's space PV concentrator is a miniaturized version of the terrestrial concentrator. A lightweight lens, made from space-qualified materials, focuses sunlight onto a string of high-efficiency tandem junction cells. This approach reduces cell area (and cost) by a factor of 8X, and total array cost by about 50%, compared to other array approaches.

The U. S. Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) and NASA initially funded ENTECH's space concentrator R & D through Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts. Boeing used ENTECH's space lenses in a successful experimental array which was launched in 1994, and operated as predicted in a high-radiation elliptical orbit.

More recently, ABLE Engineering has used ENTECH's space lenses in two generations of SCARLET space arrays. SCARLET is an acronym for Solar Concentrator Array using Refractive Linear Element Technology.

Launched October 24, 1998, the SCARLET 2 array provided approximately 2.5 kW of power for the NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory New Millennium Deep Space 1 satellite. Most of this power was used by the electric propulsion system which enabled the probe to visit the asteroid, Braille, in July 1999. On September 22, 2001, the probe had a spectacular encounter with the comet, Borrelly, capturing the highest resolution images ever taken of a comet. With 720 ENTECH lenses capturing the sunlight, the array performed flawlessly for the entire mission. In fact, after completing its mission, and just before the spacecraft ran out of fuel in December 2001, a final array power measurement still confirmed predicted performance levels for the SCARLET array after its long and successful journey through space.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory's New Millennium Deep Space 1 Web Site

JPL's Deep Space 1 Home Page

one of the two array wings (showing 360 ENTECH lenses) is shown in the photo below. This picture was taken during ground testing at ABLE Engineering in Goleta, California.

Visit ABLE's Web Site

SCARLET Wing #1 During Ground Testing at ABLE

Read the BMDO 1998 Technology Applications Report Article (You'll Need Adobe's Free PDF Reader) on ENTECH's Solar Power Technology:

Tapping the Sun in the New Millennium

Read the NASA Glenn article on Deep Space 1, including details of the ion thruster and the SCARLET solar arrays:

NASA Glenn Deep Space 1 Article

Read the NASA Tech Brief on ENTECH's Inflatable Fresnel Lens Solar Concentrators Being Developed for Future Space Power Applications:

NASA Tech Brief on ENTECH Inflatable Lenses

Read the NASA Spinoff Article on ENTECH's technology:

NASA Spinoff Article

Read the NASA Success Story on ENTECH:

NASA Success Story

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