SAC-A SATELLITE: FIRST EXPERIMENT OF ARGENTINE SOLAR CELLS IN SPACE

C.G. BOLZI; C.J. BRUNO; J.C. DURÁN; E.M. GODFRIN; M.G. MARTÍNEZ BOGADO; L.M. MERINO; J. PLA; M.J.L. TAMASI; M. BARRERA

Alaska, EEUU

Conferencia; 28th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference; 2000

On December 1998, the Endeavour space shuttle launched the Argentine satellite SAC-A. Among several technological experiments, this satellite included a set of crystalline silicon solar cells fabricated in Argentina to test them in the space environment. In this paper, we describe the experiments associated with these solar cells and analyze the corresponding telemetry data received from January to July 1999. Simultaneously, several radiation damage experiments using 10 MeV protons supplied by a cyclotron accelerator were performed. The variation of the electrical characteristics of the irradiated cells are also presented.