Andrews Space (Andrews) today announced that they have successfully completed space qualification of their new 6U solar panel. This qualification effort extends the qualified power systems products for small satellites applications beyond batteries and satellite power management to now include solar panels.

The solar panels provide a simple power generation solution for 6U CubeSat form factors and can be easily combined to create more complex strings for microsatellites.

The panels are a complementary addition to the CORTEX 130 Electrical Power System card and CORTEX Battery Unit; in combination these products provide a complete electrical power solution for your small spacecraft.

The panels nominally produce 19.4 Watts of power (BOL, 28 C) using 16 high efficiency (30%) triple-junction GaAs cells with cover glass. Additionally each panel comes standard with an integrated 1K RTD temperature sensor and photodiode sun sensor.

The solar panels were subjected to rigorous environmental testing including Vibration, Shock, and Thermal Vacuum, to ensure they would be able to survive launch conditions and a nominal 3-year mission design life in low Earth orbit. Details on the test levels and other performance specifications can be found here.

All Andrews Products and Components are built domestically using Andrews' AS9100C certified quality procedures for spaceflight hardware.