Modular solar array
US11845571B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Sep 19, 2022 |
| Grant date | Dec 19, 2023 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 27, 2042 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
- CPC primaryY02E10/50
- WIPO fieldTransport
- WIPO sectorMechanical engineering
Abstract
A solar array structure for a spacecraft is based on a modular approach, allowing for arrays to be designed, and designed to be modified, and manufactured in reduced time and with reduced cost. The embodiments for the solar array are formed of multiple copies of a “bay” of a multiple strings of solar array cells mounted on semi-rigid face-sheet structural elements. The bays are then placed into frame structures made of tubes connected by nodes to provide an easily scalable, configurable, and producible solar array wing structure. This allows for rapid turnaround of program specific designs and proposal iterations that is quickly adaptable to new/future PhotoVoltaic (PV) technologies and that can create uniquely shaped (i.e., not rectangular) arrays, allowing for mass production with simple mass producible building blocks.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.