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The constellation of satellites to be launched in the next few years to provide rapid global access to information needs low-cost and lightweight solar arrays. Multijunction thin-film amorphous silicon (a-Si) alloy solar cells deposited on lightweight and flexible substrates are ideal to meet this challenge. a-Si alloy is radiation hard, and has superior high temperature performance. We present results on fabrication of a-Si alloy solar cells on 0.5-mil-thick stainless steel using a low-cost production technology to achieve high efficiency under AM0 condition and their space qualification.

A three phase catalytic mathematical model was developed for analysis and optimization of the volatile reactor assembly (VRA) used on International Space Station (ISS) Water Processor. The Langmuir-Hinshelwood Hougen-Watson (L-H) expression was used to describe the surface reaction rate. Small column experiments were used to determine the L-H rate parameters. The test components used in the experiments were acetic acid, acetone, ethanol, 1-propanol, 2-propanol and propionic acid. These compounds are the most prevalent ones found in the influent to the VRA reactor. The VRA model was able to predict performance of small column data and experimental data from the VRA flight experiment.