Prime-mover dynamo plants – Miscellaneous – Drive gearing
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-22
2001-02-27
Ponomarenko, Nicholas (Department: 2834)
Prime-mover dynamo plants
Miscellaneous
Drive gearing
C244S168000, C244S173300, C322S00200R
Reexamination Certificate
active
06194790
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention is in the field of solar power generation for spacecraft, and in particular relates a photovoltaic blanket of flexible thin film photovoltaics supported in a sail configuration that is stiffened and oriented by the solar wind.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Modern spacecraft are starved for power. For example, a global positioning spacecraft typically requires less power to operate than a standard household hairdryer (about 1.2 kW). Standard solar array designs, which have worked extremely well for decades, are reaching the limit of their capacity to increase the available power to the spacecraft. At the same time, spacecraft are demanding more and more power. For many spacecraft systems, a spacecraft's capability is directly proportional to the amount of power available.
While photovoltaics technology has changed dramatically, standard solar array design has not. Rigid photovoltaics technology has increased in efficiency from less than 10% to, in the near future, greater than 34%. The use of solar concentrators has recently been demonstrated in conjunction with this technology and, possibly, thermal to electric conversion. Probably of most importance, thin film flexible photovoltaics have been developed in workable efficiencies leading to the ability to produce power generation “blankets”.
These technical advances place us in a unique position to revisit power generation, storage, and management from a wholly new perspective. The power needs of the future are well understood, but what systems will provide that power are completely unknown. All that is known about these systems is that they will not look anything like current-day systems. There is a tremendous potential to take these revolutionary technical advances in the power area and use them to redefine how spacecraft generate and use power.
The maximum power capacity of current state-of-the-art spacecraft power generation systems is approximately 15 kW. The best performing of these systems typically have a specific energy of 80 W/kg and a cost in the range of $1000/W. The goal of this invention is to develop a new structural concept that, using advances in thin film flexible photovoltaics technology, achieves an order of magnitude improvement in these metrics. The present invention has the potential for generating 100 kW of power, with a specific energy of over 1000 W/kg at a cost of less than $100/W. This is accomplished through a large solar power “sail” that uses the solar wind to provide structure stiffness and pointing.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention brings together the solar sail technology with thin film flexible photovoltaics to produce a revolutionary method for power generation. The Solar Sail for Power Generation array concept (hereafter referred to as the “Power Sail”) is a “sail” made of a Flexible Thin Film Photovoltaic Blanket (FTFPV) with minimal support structure. The Power Sail should not be confused with a standard solar sail which is used for propulsion only. The Power Sail uses the solar wind to help deploy the sail and to maintain its shape, eliminating the majority of the structure that would normally be required for a large photovoltaic power generating surface. In addition to providing stiffness to the sail, the solar wind has the added benefit of keeping the sail “turned” into the solar wind (normally with the assistance of an auxiliary device, such as a center-of-mass adjustment device), thereby keeping it pointed in the correct direction.
The Power Sail can be attached to a spacecraft or deployed as a free flyer utilizing the structures and sail technology developed for standard solar sails. The current techniques used in solar sails employs deployable/inflatable skeletal structures that support a thin Kapton film. In the Power Sail concept, the Kapton film is replaced with a FTFPV solar cell blanket. These cells consist of a Kapton substrate with deposited polycrystalline. This configuration allows the FTFPV to be used in a similar fashion as the pure Kapton sail. The Power Sail is pointed utilizing the solar wind assisted by electric propulsion or other devices. The lightweight structure, high efficient FTFPV blanket, and free flyer satellite-array architecture allow for a revolutionary increase in performance and reduction in cost.
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Das Alok
Griffin Steven
Huybrechts Steven
Meink Troy
Reinhardt Kitt
Callahan Kenneth E.
Ponomarenko Nicholas
The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of
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