Abstract
The paper provides an overview of the current status of several technical development activities initiated by the European Space Agency (ESA) to support the JUICE mission to the Jovian system. First of all, the qualification status of the solar cells to be used in the JUICE mission will be reported. Then, the conclusions from a dedicated activity aiming at assessing the potential degradation of triple-junction solar cells upon primary discharges will be discussed. Finally, the results on the coupon tests currently running at ESA will be presented. The coupons consist of representative solar cell assemblies including coverglasses with a conductive Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) layer. Dedicated coverglass grounding technologies are tested on the coupons which connect the conductive coverglass surfaces to the panel ground. It will be shown how the resistivity of the materials used in the coupons evolves upon submission to extreme thermal cycles.
Highlights
The European JUpiter ICy moon Explorer (JUICE) mission to the Jovian system poses major challenges to the solar generator subsystem
The status of running or finished technology development activities (TDAs) initiated by European Space Agency (ESA) to support the JUICE mission has been provided
In the pre-qualification activity the major finding was the detection of the majority carrier barrier effect in one cell structure that led to a reorientation of the cell baseline
Summary
The European JUpiter ICy moon Explorer (JUICE) mission to the Jovian system poses major challenges to the solar generator subsystem. Since the satellite on its cruise to Jupiter will make use of a Venus gravity assist, the satellite will be exposed to both, hot temperatures and high sun illumination and very cold temperatures and low sun illumination. Sun intensities received by the solar array are ranging between 2.4 suns (around 3300W/m2) and very low light intensities of down to 3.7% air mass “zero” (AM0) which are in the order of 50W/m2. The JUICE mission is characterized by an extremely harsh irradiation environment (in terms of high energetic charged particles such as electrons and protons) which leads to high degradation on solar cell level due to particle irradiation. 2. Assessment of performance degradation of solar cells during the JUICE mission due to primary discharges
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