C. Technology Advancement Phase The technology advancement phase (FY80-87) consists of three elements: ground-based developments, space experiments, and a subscale system evaluation in space. The results of these activities must also be integrated into a continuing program and system analysis and evaluation. A more detailed breakdown of activities that will be required in each of the three elements is presented i.n figure X-5. Comments pertinent to the activities in this phase are presented in the following paragraphs. Solar energy conversion0- The most significant contribution to technical and economic feasibility of SPS can be obtained by increase of solar cell array power per unit mass (kilowatts/kilogram) and decrease in costo It is also expected that solar cell life will play a key role in determining economic feasibility. StructureSo- Although structures appear to be a relatively low weight item in current SPS configurations, it is expected that significant analytical and test efforts will be required to develop and qualify these systems. The main difficulty in this area is the inability to ground test (simulate) the large, lightweight systems. GROUND-BASED DEVELOPMENT MICROWAVE POWER TRANSMISSION/ RECEIVING TECHNIQUES MICROWAVE GENERATOR DEVELOPMENT EFFICIENT, LIGHTWEIGHT, LOWCOST SPACE SOLAR CELLS THERMAL CONVERSION SYSTEM, COMPONENT TECHNOLOGY POWER PROCESSING AND DISTRIBUTION COMPONENTS MATERIALS INVESTIGATION ORBITAL TRANSFER THRUSTER TECHNOLOGY ENVIRONMENT - BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS - IONOSPHERE IMPACTS - RADIOFREQUENCY INTERFERENCE Figure X-5.- Technology advancement phase. SPACE EXPERIMENTS STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS AND FABRICATION TECHNIQUES ELECTRONIC/MECHANICAL COMPONENTS - ADVANCED SOLAR CELLS - MATERIALS - MICROWAVE GENERATORS - THERMAL CONVERTER COMPONENTS HIGH-VOLTAGE PLASMA EFFECTS ORBITAL TRANSFER THRUSTER FLIGHT EVALUATION PROPELLANT TRANSFER EMISSIONS - ATMOSPHERE COMPATIBILITY SPACE SUBSCALE SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION CONSTRUCTION/ASSEMBLY OF LARGE SYSTEMS LOGISTICS OF LARGE-SCALE SPACE OPERATIONS IN-SPACE PRODUCTIVITY AND ASSEMBLY COSTS END-TO-END POWER SYSTEM PERFORMANCE TYPICAL ACTIVITIES
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTU5NjU0Mg==