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US 8,180,505 B2Granted
Spacecraft solar cell monitoring system
AssigneeThe Aerospace Corporation
InventorsEdward J. Simburger, Daniel L. Rumsey, Simon H. Liu, John S. Halpine
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Abstract
An onboard solar cell array current and voltage characteristic determination method is preferably used on small spacecraft and determines the solar cell orientation relative to the sun by a comparison between prelaunch solar cell characteristics with on-orbit solar cell characteristics well suited for spin axis determinations and monitoring the degradation of on-orbit solar cells over the operational life of a picosatellite.
Claims19
A method for determining the spin axis of a satellite powered by a solar cell, the method comprising the steps of:
- tilting, by a calibration processor, the solar cell relative to a calibration illuminating beam for illuminating the solar cell at tilt incident angles,
- measuring, by the calibration processor, characteristics of the solar cell by illuminating the solar cell at the tilt incident angles, the characteristics being indexed to the tilt incident angles,
- storing, in a lookup table associated with the satellite, the characteristics onboard the satellite, wherein the tilting, the measuring, and the storing are performed prior to launching the satellite into orbit having an initial spin rate and an initial solar incident angle,
- sensing, by a satellite processor associated with the satellite, voltage and current from the solar cell during an on-orbit rotation of the satellite,
- determining, by the satellite processor, the characteristics from the sensed voltage and current, and
- looking up, in the lookup table by the satellite processor, a tilt incident angle indexed to the characteristics, the looked up tilt incident angle being the initial solar incident angle.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.