SOLESTIAL, INC. — National Aeronautics and Space Administration SBIR Phase II: 4-Photo

Description

Solestial, Inc. (formerly Regher Solar) in collaboration with Opterus Research and Development, Inc. (Opterus) propose this SBIR Ignite Phase 2 project to continue development of a novel photovoltaic solar array technology for large-scale spacecraft and planetary surface infrastructure that can overcome size, cost and weight limitations of the existing solar array technologies, achieve >50 kWe scale, 200 W/kg specific power and 50 kW/m3 stowed volume efficiency while simultaneously having $40/W cost and >1,000 MW manufacturing potential. The proposed innovation is based on the integration of the the next generation radiation hard and ultra-light silicon solar blankets developed by Solestial with R-ROMA deployment system developed by Opterus. The proposed Phase 2 project will focus on increasing the readiness of the blanket framing system - the key technology required to integrate thin silicon blankets with R-ROMA deployment system. A 500W framed blankets will be produced andtested to achieve TRL 6 followed by flying on a commercial spacecraft to achieve TRL 7. The proposed Phase 2 project will also develop a model and engineering drawings for a 15 kW solar array. Solestial will be offering a 15 kW array to commercial customers and will be looking to build a flight model using follow on funding afte