Abstract
In the last decades a number of failures in which a solar cell is short-circuited to the panel substrate have been reported or suspected. In the meantime protective measures, like single string connection and use of bleed resistors in the grounding circuit have been implemented. However it is still not always clear whether such an anomaly occurred and the in-flight instrumentation is usually not sufficient to provide unambiguous evidence. This paper describes a simple way to identify both the occurrence of such a cell to substrate short circuit and the panel on which it is located.The paper is then completed with the main results from the CNES study performed in 2012 to demonstrate the performance, analyse the reliability and assess the industrial feasibility of such a system.
Highlights
Detailed information on failure occurring in orbiting spacecraft is seldom released
Even if not all of them are of electrical nature it is known, even if not published, that cell to substrate short circuits are far from being uncommon
Experience shows that identifying the exact cause of an anomaly and especially if the suspected short circuit is the result of an external cause, like a micro meteorite impact, or a consequence of another electrical event is challenging
Summary
Detailed information on failure occurring in orbiting spacecraft is seldom released. When looking at the history of spacecraft anomalies, it appears that solar array failures represent a very significant fraction of the insurance claims [1]. Even if not all of them are of electrical nature (deployment failures are a significant contributor) it is known, even if not published, that cell to substrate short circuits are far from being uncommon. Experience shows that identifying the exact cause of an anomaly and especially if the suspected short circuit is the result of an external cause, like a micro meteorite impact, or a consequence of another electrical event is challenging. The usual spacecraft instrumentation is designed to support nominal and anticipated contingency operations, but in general not to help a detailed investigation.
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