Momentus picks Ascent Solar modules for space flight demo

Flexible thin-film photovoltaic (PV) solutions developer Ascent Solar Technologies Inc (OTCMKTS:ASTI) has been chosen to supply copper-indium-gallium-selenium (CIGS) PV modules for a low-Earth-orbit space flight demonstration project.

San Jose, California-based commercial space company Momentus Inc has selected Ascent Solar’s flexible modules for integration into its deployable PV array to fly on an upcoming Vigoride spacecraft.

“The module developed by Ascent Solar and Momentus is designed for rapid integration into Momentus’ deployable PV array. We developed a customized monolithically-integrated submodule for their application to maximize the space utilization of the PV. We then integrated it into our laminated packaging with harnessing that cancels out all magnetic interaction with the current loops, and placed protective bypass diodes onto each circuit to make a truly robust building block for their deployable PV arrays,” explained Joseph Armstrong, founding team member, chief technology and chief operating officer of Ascent Solar.

The Vigoride spacecraft is scheduled for a flight later this year.

Ascent Solar believes that in the future its modules will benefit a variety of missions such as CubeSats, solar sails and potentially missions to the moon and Mars.

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