Sensors and Instrumentation for Prognostics of Solar Arrays (SIPS)

The SIPS project incorporates advanced instrumentation (sensors) into solar arrays to monitor the local space plasma environment and inform array operation regarding relevant information about the operating evironment to maximize power output without compromising safety across a variety of spacecraft charging conditions. SIPS improves solar array operations in various charging environments (whether Lunar, GEO, HEO, or Deep Space) through ML modeling and advancing sensor development which expands upon instrumentation developed in a separate Project.The SIPS project aims to improve the existing state of solar array operations through the development of advanced instrumentation that allow environment-informed array operation by demonstrating the ability of autonomous lifetime management using an embedded prognostic capability. The SIPS sensors will be used to monitor arc rates of the array and other relevant information about the operating environment using data from significant test campaigns in the Plasma Interaction Facility, an ML model will be developed to be housed in lightweight microprocessors. This model will be used to tailor array operating levels to the current environment instead of designing the array for worst-case scenario. Not only will this maximize power output without compromising safety across a variety of spacecraft charging conditions, but it will also streamline solar array design by allowing arrays to be standardized. As opposed to being designed for space operations in a specific mission environment, arrays with active sensing and environment-informed operations can be standardized.When operating in the presence of charged particles, solar arrays can experience electrostatic discharge events known as arcs. These arcing events can be highly damaging to solar cells and array components and will result in severe power loss over time if not addressed. In the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) the ECI project Mitigating Arc Inception via Transformational Array Instrumentation (MAI TAI), developed active arc mitigation circuitry that can detect and quench secondary arcs before they damage the array. The SIPS project advances the arc mitigation circuitry to create an "active" solar array that interacts with it's specific environment to provide protection from deleterious effects of it's operating environment.  Currently, no advanced solar array instrumentation like SIPS is in use.  Typically, "passive" solar arrays are developed as one-off designs for each mission profile, and the Non-recurrent engineering (NRE) costs account for 30%-50% of the final solar array cost to the Project.

​Approximately 30% of the power systems cost of spacecraft is in the solar arrays. The ultimate costs of the solar arrays are generally variable but typically are broken down into 30% cell cost, 30% touch labor assembly, and 40% NRE costs and compliance testing. Thus, the potential exists to reduce the cost of state of the art (SOA) solar arrays by 50%, with a negligible cost addition from the active electronics, a savings of 15% of the power system ultimately. Active solar arrays interact with their specific environment and can be protected from the deleterious effects of that environment through precluding secondary arcing. The protected solar array has longer lifetime, which is a limitation to certain long-lived missions, in applications such as Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites, planetary science explorers such as Lucy, lunar or Martian surface power such as Vertical Solar Array Technologies (VSAT). End of life estimates are based on an experientially determined degradation rate, of which arcing damage is a significant contributor.​

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