The Roll Out Solar Array , Known As ROSA , is a solar array designed by NASA . [1] This new type of solar array provides much more energy than the old solar arrays. [2] Traditional solar panels used to power satellites can be bulldozed with heavy panels folded together using mechanical hinges. When launching into space, mass and volume are everything, and ROSA is 20 percent lighter and smaller than rigid panel arrays. [3]It is a flexible and rollable solar array like a measuring tape wound on its spool. The new solar array design rolls up to form a compact cylinder for launch with significantly less mass and volume, potentially offering substantial cost savings. Being smaller than the traditional solar panels, ROSA has a center made of a flexible material which supports the strings of photovoltaic cells that churn out electrical energy. Both sides of the wing have a narrow structure, which is called a high strain composite boom. The booms look like split tubes made of a stiff composite material, flattened and rolled up lengthwise.The array does not have any of the following features. These solar wings are then deployed in the energy markets that are present at the two ends of the structure.
Patent
Brian R Spence and Stephen F White are the first persons to come up with the idea of Roll Out Solar Array on Jan 21st, 2010. [4] They received a patent for this work on April 1 of 2014 [4]
History
NASA tested the ROSA technology in vacuum tubes on earth several years ago, but still it’s time to test it on space on June 18 of 2017. Over the weekend of June 17-18, 2017, engineers on the ground remotely operated the International Space Station’s robotic Canadarm2Solar Array (ROSA) experiment from the SpaceX Dragon resupply ship. After the observation the mechanism was not planned to be retrieved back to earth.The solar array unfurled June 18, extending like a party favoring tensioning booms on both sides of the 5.5-foot-wide (1.6-meter-wide) wing. NASA is committed to conducting continuous tests for a week and observing its consequences .Engineers observed the behavior of the solar array and the space station during each 90-minute orbit of Earth, exposing it to extreme temperature swings. A mechanical actuator also introduces vibrations and oscillations to gauge the array of responses to structural charges and the measurement of solar power. [5]The experiments went well, but ground controllers were unable to check the solar panel back in its stowed configuration after rolling it up. Anyhow the solar array is successfully jettisoned from the International Space Station. [6] Mission managers planned to roll up the panel and return it to the spacecraft Dragon’s external payload bay, which would burn up in Earth’s atmosphere. Certainly, the Air Force is interested in a LEO to GEO ( low earth orbit to geostationary orbit ) transfer perspective. There are some really cool apps for ROSA coming down the pike.
Applications
ROSA being white very compact in size and due to icts wide power generation capacity it is reliable for future tasks and majorly for interplanetary travels qui need a huge amount of energy.
See also
- Solar panels
- Solar array
References
- Jump up^ “Roll Out Solar Array” . Retrieved June 21, 2017 .
- Jump up^ Rory Barrett, Douglas Campbell. “Development of a Passively Deployed Roll-Out Solar Array” . Defense Technical Information Center, 2006.
- Jump up^ “Converting Sunlight into Electricity: Deployable Space Systems Inc.” . HighBeam . Retrieved 1 December 2016 .
- ^ Jump up to:a b “Directionally controlled elastically deployable roll-out solar array” . www.google/patents . Retrieved 1 April 2014 .
- Jump up^ Samantha, Mathewon. “NASA Flexible Roll-Out Solar Array Tests on Space Station” . space.com . Retrieved 20 June 2017 .
- Jump up^ “Jettison of ROSA” . space.com . Retrieved 27 June 2017 .
- This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration .
- This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration .
