During the preliminary phase of designing a REUSABLE lander for the lunar surface from the gateway, the need to necessarily use deployable SAs came up. In addition, because of the descending and ascending phase, it is necessary to close and reopen the SAs several times. Is a ROSA mechanism capable of guaranteeing this performance? Has the opening and closing of the SAs multiple times during the operational life been provided for other missions? What solutions might be compatible with our case?
Add a comment
|
1 Answer
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
ROSA-style Solar panels are designed so that they can be retracted. This was tested on iROSA in 2017, but due to technical difficulties, the retraction attempts failed to lock into place. Three tests of the deployment and retraction system were conducted, proving the design can retract and deploy multiple times, even though they did not successfully stay retracted. Ground tests before the flight had succeeded.
As far as I know, the new ISS ROSAs do not have retraction equipment.
However, RedWire advertises their ROSA arrays as being retractable. I assume it is an optional feature.
answered Jun 7, 2023 at 22:27