The ADM Aeolus Solar Array

ADM Aeolus is an Earth Explorer Core Mission of the European Space Agency (ESA). It is the first deployable solar array fully equipped with European state of the art triple junction (TJ) GaAs solar cells. The Aeolus solar array (SA) is derived from an already existing design that is the one used for the Automated Transfer Vehicle and Galileo Satellite Test Bed V2 (both equipped with SiHieta cells) with different panel dimensions. It is based on two deployable wings, each of them composed by three panels, whose sizes are 1.1 × 2.2 m2, so that the total area is about 14,5 m2. European TJ solar cells embodying an integral protection diode were selected to meet the power requirement of the Aeolus spacecraft (S/C) whose principal payload is an Atmospheric Laser Doppler Instrument (ALADIN), a novel system whose development is a strategic goal for ESA. This SA program is a challenging development in terms of solar cell qualifications because of the extensive campaign performed in order to characterize the cell and the integral diode that is one of the key elements for the success of the mission. A long duration high temperature test was performed in order to simulate lifetime stresses. The design drivers for the PVA are the power requirement end of life and the need to protect the solar array against atomic oxygen.