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Completed TRL 7 (started at 6, targeting 7)
The Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator 4 (PTD-4) mission will demonstrate a very high-power, low-volume deployable solar array with an integrated antenna called the Lightweight Integrated Solar Array and anTenna, or LISA-T, being developed by NASA’s Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Current LISA-T designs are scalable from 100 to 500 watts, with options to scale up to 1000 watts and beyond. Utilizing small spacecraft for missions in deep space will necessitate the need for more electrical power, and LISA-T’s thin film solar array offers lower mass, lower stowed volume, and 300% more power per mass and volume allocation than the current state-of-the-art thick film solar arrays. This mission launched on August 16, 2024 and is currently in orbit.
The planned in orbit demonstration includes deployment, operation, and environmental survivability of the thin-film solar array. The importance of this novel and challenging approach to realizing more efficient and optimal power generation is two-fold. The LISA-T experiment is an opportunity for NASA and the small spacecraft community to learn to apply and deploy a thin and flexible film solar array with an integrated antenna into space to provide and improve lightweight power generation and communications competencies. Both are critical capabilities for achieving higher value science and the exploration of deep space supported by small spacecraft.
LISA-T’s four-petal configured solar array is a thin-film solar array that offers lower mass, lower stowed volume, and three times more power per mass and volume allocation than the current state-of-the-art thick film solar arrays.
LISA-T aims to enable future deep space exploration and science missions the capacity to acquire and communicate data through efficiencies gained by improved power generation and communication capabilities on the same integrated array.
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This is a mature technology (TRL 7) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.
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