News: Photovoltaics
16 October 2024
5N Plus’ AZUR solar cells head to Jupiter aboard NASA’s Europa Clipper
Specialty semiconductor and performance materials producer 5N Plus Inc of Montreal, Québec, Canada says that solar cells produced by its subsidiary AZUR SPACE Solar Power GmbH of Heilbronn, Germany are enabling the Europa Clipper, NASA’s largest spacecraft ever built for planetary exploration. The spacecraft took flight on 14 October with the mission to determine whether Jupiter’s icy moon Europa has the potential to support life.
“The world’s leading space agencies continue to choose AZUR as a trusted partner and our high-performing solar cells which enable the generation of solar power in the extreme cold, dark and harsh conditions of Jupiter as well as many other environments, such as missions close to the sun and various Earth orbits,” says 5N+’s president & CEO Gervais Jacques.
AZUR’s triple-junction solar cells (3G-LILT) were embedded in the Europa Clipper spacecraft’s solar arrays. These solar-cell-covered ‘wings’ are critical for utilizing the maximum amount of sunlight possible to generate power, as Europa Clipper will receive only 3–4% of the sunlight that reaches Earth due to Europa’s distance from the Sun. The selected AZUR solar cells are specifically designed to function in one of the most extreme environments in our solar system, with conditions characterized by intense particle radiation, low sunlight intensity and low temperature (LILT). Prior to NASA, the European Space Agency also relied on these same solar cells for its Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) mission spacecraft, which launched in 2023.
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