Bigger arrays let satellites switch to cheap silicon cells
From Football Field Size Solar Arrays That Fold Into a Rocket on Deeptech Decoded, with Pele Collins.
Transcript
Okay. Mm.
So, and it's like from a chemistry standpoint, from a material science standpoint, just like a super over complicated for what it's trying to do. and before I forget, sorry, the other thing I was going to say about like how we can also get cheaper. So like the mechanism comparing this, for example, to the composite tube by itself is like 90 % cheaper. And you can, you can Google what the, ones in the ISS costs. I think they were like a hundred million dollars, something crazy. but. The other thing is because our mechanism allows you to get bigger, space, if you think of like solar panels on your roof of your house, like the cost of solar on earth energy, solar powers and panels on earth has dropped dramatically in the last like 20 or 30 years. And it's all because of like lot of production stuff, but like silicon is basically what everyone uses. It's silicon with glass. That's like the cheapest way to do solar.
Mm-hmm.
Almost no one in space today uses silicon based solar cells. use, and the reason is like, it's not that efficient. It's like about 17 % efficiency in terms of how much energy converts from the sun. So that's fine for your roof. We have a lot of space, but if you're trying to keep your solar panels in space as small as possible, again, because you want to be maneuverable, they use higher efficiency cells. So they use something like, for example, like triple junction is more like 30 % efficient.
Mm. Hmm.
So it means your solar panel can be half the size, but still generate the same amount of power. The nice thing, again, if we just get comfortable with these giant solar arrays, which is what we're trying to do here, you then are less scared about having a big solar panel. So you can switch over to the way cheaper silicon cells versus triple junction. you can also, your cost of the mechanism is cheaper and your cost of the solar panels themselves is a lot cheaper. So it's like that combination is like really making the whole architecture.
Mm-hmm.
Like I said, 88%, potentially 88 % cheaper, which is huge for everyone.
Right now, where are you guys in terms of your milestones? you get started you set your goals for the next year, till the end of next year. And where are we now? Like in a way that you can confidently say, yes, like what we expected versus reality.
