Technical Insight
Tecstar solar cells head out for Mars (Opto News)
Tecstar has announced that its new TEC 3i solar cell has been chosen to power the latest Martian exploration spacecraft being developed by NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) is the newest vehicle designed to carry instruments, including cameras and spectrometers, to the surface to find out whether or not water has been present in the planet s history. Tecstar is working with JPL staff to test and build the solar panels that will give the MER the power to get to Mars. The solar panels will also enable it to travel on the surface as far as 100 km in a Martian day. Tecstar claims that the TEC 3i has the largest format of any high-efficiency solar cell available. It incorporates Tecstar s monolithically grown bypass diode that increases cell lifetime but reduces weight. The latter factor is crucial for launch payloads (see Compound Semiconductor August 2001, p29).
