PROBLEMS ON APPLICATION OF SRSS TO SPACE STATION There are three primary problems with the application of the present SRSS to the space station. The first problem is space radiation damage in the Fresnel lens which is made from plastic materials. It makes the system life shorter and therefore makes the maintenance expensive. The second problem is the cooling of the solar ray collector assembly. The solar ray collector is heated due to the irradiation (mainly the infrared part of the solar ray). The third problem is the high pointing accuracy required of the sun tracking system. A pointing accuracy as high as within +0.02 deg is required for tracking the sun. The larger the concentration ratio of the solar ray becomes, the higher the pointing accuracy required. APPLICATION OF SRSS TO SPACE AGRICULTURE EXPERIMENT Figure 6 shows the space agriculture experiment using the SRSS. The concentrated solar rays are transmitted through the light conducting fiber cable into the space phytotron installed in the experiment module. They are growing the lettuce and spinach on the inside surface of a rotating drum which generates the artificial gravity. The solar ray is radiated to the plants from the emitter equipped at the center of the drum. Table 3 Estimated Transmission Efficiency
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