| Issue |
E3S Web Conf.
Volume 16, 2017
11th European Space Power Conference
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 04006 | |
| Number of page(s) | 7 | |
| Section | Power Generation: Solar Generators Mission Design | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/20171604006 | |
| Published online | 23 May 2017 | |
The Bepicolombo Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) Solar Array Design, Major Developments and Qualification
1 Airbus DS GmbH, 81663 Munich, Germany
2 Airbus DS GmbH, 88039 Friedrichshafen, Germany
3 ESA/ESTEC, Keplerlaan 1, 2200AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands
The BepiColombo Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) solar array has been designed to guarantee the operational requirements in a very severe environment, mainly characterized by high temperatures and high light intensity. Furthermore, the qualification of the MPO solar array requires ca. 5500 thermal cycles.
The final configuration of the solar array is the result of a very complex system analysis aiming at reducing the solar array operative temperatures. The outcome of this was an extensive development and test effort on components which provide sufficiently high temperature resistance and a wing with unique design characteristics.
The MPO solar generator is composed of one wing consisting of three panels and provides an average power output up to 1800W during the nominal 1 Earth year mission around Mercury. The wing design is characterised by temperature reduction measures. The flight wing has already passed the majority of the environmental test program.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2017
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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