Converting Sunlight Into Satellite Power

Spectrolab said last week that it has produced more than 25,000 of its high-efficiency solar cells that convert sunlight into electrical power for satellites and other spacecraft. The solar cells will be used in space for the first time when Citizen Explorer 1--a small Earth-orbiting satellite that will be used by students--is launched in December.

Spectrolab’s triple-junction gallium-arsenide solar cells have an average conversion efficiency of 24.5%, the highest of any developed by the Sylmar unit of Hughes Electronics. Spectrolab President Dieter Zemmrich said that by 2002, the company will produce a next-generation solar cell capable of converting nearly 40% of captured sunlight into usable energy.