UltraFlex-175 Solar Array Technology Maturation Achievements for NASA's New Millennium Program (NMP) Space Technology 8 (ST8)

ATK Space Systems (ATK) in collaboration with the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC), the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and EMCORE Photovoltaics (EPV), is executing NASA's New Millennium Program (NMP) Space Technology 8 (ST8) Project Formulation Refinement Phase to develop and validate through spaceflight a state-of-th-art solar array system called UltraFlex-175. UltraFlex-175 is a highly evolved and scaled version of the previously flight qualified Mars 01-Lander UltraFlex and employs many advanced technologies. The UltraFlex-175 system promises very high specific power (175 W/g - 220 W/kg BOL), compact stowage volume (> 33 kW/m3), high reliability, scalability beyond 7 kW wing sizes, and operational capability for standard, high voltage, multi-A.U., and/or high temperature applications. Key technology maturation activities performed (deployment kinematics, deployed dynamics, and power productioon / survivability) that demonstrate TRL 5-6 achievement will be presented. Subsystem and system level design, development, experimental hardware builds, conducted testing and results, and analytical model correlation activities will be presented. Technology scale-up performance to 7 kW wing sizes and the planned UltraFlex-175 flight experiment will also be presented.