Analysis of 10 years' flight data of solar cell monitor on ETS-V

This paper describes the analysis of NASDA's various space solar cells by a nalyzing the data measured in space. NASDA launched the Engineering Test Sa tellite-V (ETS-V) on August 27, 1987 and put into the geostationary orbit a t a longitude 150 degreesE. This satellite was in operation until electroni cs stopped on September 12, 1997. On this satellite, the solar cell monitor (SCM) was equipped as a part of the Technical Data Acquisition Equipment ( TEDA) for observation of the space environment. SCM consisted of 24 kinds o f solar cells including silicon (Si) cells and gallium arsenide (GaAs) cell s as shown in Table 1. The short-circuit current (I-sc) characteristic of e ach cell were measured in the radiation environment of geostationary orbit for 10 years. The degradation data due to a solar flare, occurred in Octobe r 19, 1989, were also recorded. All flight data agree qualitatively with gr ound test data. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.