In Flight Detection and Localisation of Short Circuits on Solar Generators

In the last decades a number of failures in which a solar cell is short-circuited to the panel substrate have been reported or suspected. In the meantime protective measures, like single string connection and use of bleed resistors in the grounding circuit have been implemented. However it is still not always clear whether such an anomaly occurred and the in-flight instrumentation is usually not sufficient to provide unambiguous evidence. This paper describes a simple way to identify both the occurrence of such a cell to substrate short circuit and the panel on which it is located. The paper is then completed with the main results from the CNES study performed in 2012 to demonstrate the performance, analyse the reliability and assess the industrial feasibility of such a system

In Flight Detection and Localisation of Short Circuits on Solar Generators

In the last decades a number of failures in which a solar cell is short-circuited to the panel substrate have been reported or suspected. In the meantime protective measures, like single string connection and use of bleed resistors in the grounding circuit have been implemented. However it is still not always clear whether such an anomaly occurred and the in-flight instrumentation is usually not sufficient to provide unambiguous evidence. This paper describes a simple way to identify both the occurrence of such a cell to substrate short circuit and the panel on which it is located. The paper is then completed with the main results from the CNES study performed in 2012 to demonstrate the performance, analyse the reliability and assess the industrial feasibility of such a system

ECSS-E-ST&HB-20-20C – A Power Interface Standard & Handbook for Products Development

With progression of space experience, the need of more stable and repeatable interfaces definition becomes clear. Especially for satellite platform needs, some electrical interfaces need a more reproducible application frame, to ensure at the same time the necessary and undisputable quality and reliability needed for institutional and non-institutional missions, and the containment of costs that nowadays is overall requested. The prerequisite to be able to establish a wide and agreed basis for the definition of the power electrical interfaces on board of a spacecraft is the existence of a consolidated reference architecture. Such consolidated reference architecture indeed exists for the power subsystem of ESA satellites: due to a number of practical reasons, the concept of using Latching Current Limiters (or LCLs) for the satellite onboard power distribution has consolidated over many decades. This allowed a global European agreement on the relevant interface definition, which culminated in the drafting, reviewing and publication of the ECSS-EST- 20-20C standard (STD) and of the relevant handbook ECSS-E-HB-20-20A (HB)

ECSS-E-ST&HB-20-20C – A Power Interface Standard & Handbook for Products Development

With progression of space experience, the need of more stable and repeatable interfaces definition becomes clear. Especially for satellite platform needs, some electrical interfaces need a more reproducible application frame, to ensure at the same time the necessary and undisputable quality and reliability needed for institutional and non-institutional missions, and the containment of costs that nowadays is overall requested. The prerequisite to be able to establish a wide and agreed basis for the definition of the power electrical interfaces on board of a spacecraft is the existence of a consolidated reference architecture. Such consolidated reference architecture indeed exists for the power subsystem of ESA satellites: due to a number of practical reasons, the concept of using Latching Current Limiters (or LCLs) for the satellite onboard power distribution has consolidated over many decades. This allowed a global European agreement on the relevant interface definition, which culminated in the drafting, reviewing and publication of the ECSS-EST- 20-20C standard (STD) and of the relevant handbook ECSS-E-HB-20-20A (HB)