NASA backs 4 solar cell projects to aid deep space missions

Four projects will receive financing from the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the design, testing and analysis of new solar cells for future deep space missions.

NASA's Game Changing Development (GCD) programme will award up to USD 400,000 (EUR 360,800) for each of the projects, whose goal is to develop solar technologies that can operate in high-radiation and low-temperature environments. The four winners at that stage are:

-- Transformational Solar Array for Extreme Environments -- Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory of Laurel, Maryland
-- Micro-Concentrator Solar Array Technology for Extreme Environments – The Boeing Company of Huntington Beach, California
-- Solar Array for Low-intensity Low Temperature and High-Radiation Environments, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California
-- Concentrator Solar Power Systems for Low-intensity Low Temperature and High Radiation Game Changing Technology Development -- ATK Space Systems of Goleta, California

There will be a second phase of the competition, in which no more than two of these technologies will get up to an additional USD 1.25 million to develop and test the hardware. In the third and final phase of the project, one awardee may be allowed to continue the development and deliver scalable system hardware.

Total of 13 proposal competed for financing in the programme.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.902)

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