Ascent Solar Technologies ASTI, the maker of featherweight, flexible and durable CIGS thin-film photovoltaic (PV) solutions, is one step closer to powering the spacecraft of tomorrow, announcing its collaboration with NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) has commenced.
The two, with support from NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC), are developing spacecraft that can receive beamed power using Ascent Solar’s CIGS PV modules. It’s part of NASA’s mission to develop the ability to do more in space at a fraction of the cost. Ascent promises to deliver that with its CIGS PV modules.
With Ascent Solar’s technology, energy is beamed from satellites or orbital vehicles to these thin, flexible PV panels affixed to the spacecraft via microwave or laser beam. Once captured in the CIGS PV modules the spacecraft will be able to go further, for longer periods of time. Plus the spacecraft will be lighter and cheaper to make because it has less parts and needs less equipment to power it.
NASA is no stranger to beamed power. In 2023 it launched its Psyche Mission, which is a journey to a unique metal-rich asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter using beamed power. Since then, it has demonstrated deep space laser communications across 19 million miles of space, validating the efficacy of tight-beaming technologies over vast distances. Bench-testing conducted by NASA MSFC earlier this year demonstrated receiving beamed power using Ascent’s commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products. This was prior to the company receiving a Collaborative Agreement Notice (CAN) from NASA.
All In On Beamed Power
As part of the CAN, Ascent and NASA are working together to develop products that enable mission architectures to include beamed power. Ascent is providing design and prototyping services while NASA is providing technical expertise and test services. The collaboration is to last 12 months, and the end result is the launch of commercial products that Ascent says will lower the cost, complexity and risk of NASA missions.
“This collaboration with NASA further bolsters our longstanding belief that the unique capabilities of thin-film solar technology will play an integral role in overcoming the challenges of reliably converting solar energy and also receive beamed power in a breadth of harsh space environments,” said Paul Warley, CEO of Ascent Solar Technologies. “Through our work together, we plan to bring an even more capable product line to market that will reduce mission costs and complexities while improving PV efficiency, making our technology a crucial piece of future space missions.”
The collaboration between Ascent and NASA comes as the market for beamed power seems to be taking off. The solar power space market is projected to be a multi-billion dollar industry by 2030. Demand for green energy and a focus on sustainability are driving demand for space-based solar power.
Putting Ascent’s CIGS PV Modules To The Test
The aim of the collaboration is to evaluate the ability of Ascent’s CIGS PV modules to generate power while illuminated by energy-dense beams of light. The goal is to convert more usable power from the equivalent of tens of Earth’s Sun, reports Ascent. The ability to remotely receive 10x more power on-demand while using the same PV cells for collecting sunlight can significantly reduce solar array mass and volume required to meet mission power needs. In practice, this suggests that beamed-power architectures can lead to reductions of both spacecraft mass and volume budgets, reports Ascent.
Ascent’s technology can also overcome the downmass issue with the current way spacecraft are powered. Planetary missions require power generation from subsystems that make up a large amount of the landed downmass. Ascent’s technology can reduce the spacecraft’s power system mass and volume. According to Ascent, this could lead to an order of magnitude reduction in the downmass required to access expensive space exploration and science mission destinations. Ascent estimates its CIGS PV modules can realize upwards of tens of millions of potential savings per lander mission.
Enabling NASA
Ultimately the collaboration will ascertain if Ascent’s technology can help enable NASA to effectively and efficiently achieve its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) missions, Artemis campaign to the Moon and planetary science objectives. This includes enabling surviving the lunar night as well as powering remote access to areas of scientific interest, such as cold traps and permanently shadowed regions on the Moon where water is believed to be located in high concentrations, reports the company.
NASA wants to explore further and deeper in space and beamed power and Ascent Solar may be poised to play a big role in that. With its thin, lightweight and bendable CIGS PV modules that can capture beamed power and transfer it to waiting spacecraft, not only can NASA potentially achieve its space goals but do it cheaper and with less disruption.
Featured photo by Brian McGowan on Unsplash.
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