Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. Completes First Delivery of New, Increased Efficiency Material for Lifecycle Performance Capabilities Testing in Space Environments
THORNTON, Colo., Dec. 18, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ascent Solar Technologies, (Nasdaq: ASTI) (“ASTI” or the “Company”), the leading U.S. innovator in the design and manufacture of featherweight, flexible, and durable CIGS thin-film photovoltaic (PV) solutions, announced today that the Company has completed the first delivery of its new, for further testing.
This initial evaluation is the first in a campaign of ongoing high-fidelity lifecycle testing to simulate decades of continued operations in space, informing the Company’s iterative development paths to even higher efficiencies. Customers have chosen to fly Ascent’s Plug & FlyTM arrays due to their requiring only a fraction of the mass and volume to produce the same power as alternatives. These weight and volumetric efficiencies are further bolstered by Ascent’s recent efficiency breakthroughs, enabling spacecraft to fly with even less dead weight, and potentially even downsize to a smaller launch rideshare slot.
The planned tests for which Ascent is currently manufacturing products will indicate just how much less area of solar arrays will be needed to generate the end of life (EOL) power that each space mission requires. This forthcoming test campaign will also allow Ascent to further refine its products to be even more resilient and longer-lived in the space environment.
“Having our technology demonstrates the robustness of our CIGS PV in the space environment,” said Paul Warley, CEO of Ascent Solar Technologies. “Our objective with the upcoming series of long-duration simulated tests is to quantify the degradation rate of Ascent’s products over the course of even the most demanding space missions that require consistent power generation for decades at a time. The results of these tests stand to verify and validate that Ascent’s products save dollars and kilograms for the missions of today, and begin enabling the spacecraft of the future.”
The space environment in the orbits around which satellites operate is an off-worldly, harsh landscape that deteriorates their ability to properly function over time. Satellite electronic systems are especially vulnerable to the vacuum temperature extremes of space and the doses of radiation received as spacecraft circle the Earth or venture deeper into space. Consequently, those designing space missions must ensure that their spacecraft are engineered to be able to produce sufficient power over the entirety of their mission. This is the reason why many of today’s typical multi-year missions are so over-designed, to the extent that spacecraft are being flown using multiples of the power they will require at the mission’s end. At-launch costs run thousands of dollars per kilogram just to reach low Earth orbit (LEO). Since delivering to higher energy orbits are orders of magnitudes more costly, there is a significant financial burden driven by solar arrays as they are one of the most massive subsystems on a spacecraft.
Ascent’s extensive test and evaluation program aims to reveal how many kilograms the Company can save mission directors and managers on their spacecraft mass budgets while simultaneously preserving ample margins on their EOL power budgets, even in deep space. This would also allow Ascent to demonstrate how much longer hosted payload providers can anticipate being able to generate revenue, or allow future condosat engineers to know for how many customer payload life-cycles that their spacecraft can assuredly generate enough power for on-orbit serviceable customer payloads. If its solar modules are proven capable of reliably producing power for decades on-orbit, Ascent may revive the feasibility of business models that had previously been considered science fiction, such as Lunar power stations or Dyson Spheres.
ABOUT ASCENT SOLAR TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Backed by 40 years of R&D, 15 years of manufacturing experience, numerous awards, and a comprehensive IP and patent portfolio, Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of innovative, high-performance, flexible thin-film solar panels for use in environments where mass, performance, reliability, and resilience matter. Ascent’s photovoltaic (PV) modules have been deployed on space missions, multiple airborne vehicles, agrivoltaic installations, in industrial/commercial construction as well as an extensive range of consumer goods, revolutionizing the use cases and environments for solar power. Ascent Solar’s research and development center and 5-MW nameplate production facility is in Thornton, Colorado. To learn more, visit or follow the Company on and
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