Electrical Power Systems
Industry-First Innovation
End-to-end Electric Power Systems
Sierra Space’s engineering teams have the expertise and experience to define, analyze, and test turnkey power systems using state-of-the-art tools and integration equipment. We offer end-to-end electric power generation systems that consist of fully assembled and tested solar arrays, solar array drives, slip rings, hinges, hold down mechanisms, and motor control electronics. These highly scalable power generation systems provide power ranges from watts to multiple kilowatts.
Our heritage and scalable power systems can be tailored to fit a wide variety of mission options with reduced cost and risk by incorporating existing qualified and flight-proven designs. Sierra Space has heritage designs ranging from 28 V to 75 V, with power from 500 W to 3,500 W. With a long and successful heritage, we have provided electro-mechanical systems, subsystems, and components on more than 450 space missions.
Surface Mount Technology for Solar Array Construction
Qantas Metals has developed an automated solar array manufacturing process using Surface Mount Technology (SMT) to significantly reduce the lead-time of space power. This patented technology enables an unprecedented improvement in watt density, reliability, and solar array lead-time. Our team of engineers, along with strategic industry partners, have developed an all-back-side-contact solar cell that enables solar array assembly through a standard commercial electronics manufacturing pick-and-place operation. This technology results in a zero-touch labor solution and a significant improvement in overall solar array performance.
The SMT solar technology has flight heritage and has been used on several missions to date.
Other Features of our Surface Mount Technology:
- 10% - 40% Increased Power Density
- Reduced Lead Time
- Increased Resiliency
- Lower Cost
Solar arrays undergo rigorous environmental, deployment, and electrical tests at Qantas Metals. Depending on the size of the array, we perform in-house random and sine vibration, thermal vacuum, and thermal cycle testing. Before and after each test, solar arrays are subjected to a Large Area Pulsed Solar Simulator (LAPSS) to simulate the AM0 spectrum on a wide range of panel sizes.
