Description: This PhaseII program will focus on integrating viable solar cell blanket assemblies onto the inner disk of a starshade needed for potential exoplanet discovery missions. The Phase II will design and analyze structural interfaces, harness requirements, harness routing, survival and durability for packaging, launch and on-orbit environmental requirements. The program will involve numerous hardware demonstration units and testing and culminate in a full scale demonstration unit with a portion of active solar cells. This will move the inner disk with solar cells to TRL 5. The inner disk of the baseline starshade is approximately 10 m in diameter. This large surface area is an ideal location for solar arrays which will allow for solar electric propulsion. SEP will allow the starshade to transition to new orbit positions relative to the telescope more efficiently which will expand the exoplanet science during the mission lifetime.

Benefits: Technology developed during this SBIR program will be directly applied to any NASA telescope program involved with exoplanet discovery and characterization that needs an external occulter, or Starshade. The Exo-S STDT Final Report identified a potential rendezvous mission with WFIRST/AFTA because it is a large astrophysics telescope capable of supporting direct imaging with a starshade, and the current timing of its development fits with a potential starshade development and launch.

This solar array system would apply to any commercial or DOD application where a high stiffness, high strength solar array is needed. The design is scalable up to 20 to 30 m diameters which could achieve up to 300 KW. Arrays of this size can power solar electric propulsion systems. The strength and stiffness will allow high acceleration and maneuver loads.