SAN FRANCISCO – New Mexico startup mPower Expertise introduced a contract Oct. 3 with Airbus Netherlands B.V. to offer solar energy modules for greater than 200 satellites.
“It’s one of many largest area energy module contracts ever introduced, and clearly the biggest for mPower,” Kevin Hell, mPower president and CEO, informed SpaceNews.
The worth of the contract was not disclosed. Below the settlement, mPower will provide DragonSCALES photo voltaic modules to Airbus for MDA Aurora, the software-defined satellites being constructed for communications constellations together with Canadian satellite tv for pc operator Telesat’s Lightspeed constellation.
Beginning in 2025, mPower will ship DragonSCALE modules able to producing 1.1 megawatts of energy for 200 Airbus Sparkwing photo voltaic arrays. Every photo voltaic array consists of two wings with 5 panels apiece protecting greater than 30 sq. meters.
Latest declines in launch prices are resulting in “extra frequent, bold satellite tv for pc packages” together with low-Earth orbit constellations, lunar missions and area habitats, Hell stated. “These large-scale high-powered missions are going to want inexpensive and dependable energy in massive volumes.”
Automated Manufacturing
The contract with Airbus additionally marks “a shift towards a brand new commercialized, automated world of manufacturing for photo voltaic at scale,” Hell stated.
DragonSCALE modules for the Sparkwing photo voltaic arrays shall be produced on an automatic high-volume manufacturing line in New York operated by Common Instrument Corp., owned by Delta Electronics. In 2022, mPower raised $10 million in a Sequence B funding spherical to scale up manufacturing of its interconnected photovoltaic cells, that are designed to be extra customizable, versatile and cheap to supply than conventional photo voltaic cells.
For the Airbus contract and different clients, mPower and Common Instrument intend to develop manufacturing. The road already has capability to fabricate modules that may produce 1.5 megawatts per 12 months.
“To place that in perspective, that’s roughly equal to all the mixed output of the normal gallium-arsenide-based options which can be on the market,” Hell stated.
“mPower’s solar-cell expertise is the best selection for this mission as a result of it has the very best value per watt together with our revolutionary Sparkwing photo voltaic arrays,” Rob van Hassel, Airbus Netherlands enterprise director Photo voltaic Arrays, stated in a press release. “The partnership builds on Airbus’ shut statement of mPower growing the DragonSCALES expertise over the previous 5 years.”
Flight heritage for mPower DragonSCALES comes from direct-to-smartphone constellation startup Lynk International. As well as, DragonSCALES energy modules reached orbit on JoeySat, an Airbus-built satellite tv for pc designed to check capabilities for OneWeb’s second-generation constellation.
