Solar array Shuttle flight experiment - Hardware development and testing

This paper reports on the fabrication and ground testing of a large area, light-weight, flexible substrate developmental solar array wing that has been built for NASA-MSFC (Contract NAS8-31352) and of the supporting structure and data acquisition system (DAS) which, with the wing will be flown in the shuttle as an experiment in 1984. The experiment will verify the dynamics, thermodynamic, and electrical performance predictions of the array wing and will demonstrate the structural capability of the array wing for Orbiter launch and re-entry environments. The accomodation of the Shuttle payload requirements has resulted in several array wing and operation modifications since the ground demonstration of the array wing in the technology development program. The experiment hardware verification program was designed to minimize costs and risk of experiment performance degradation while maintaining shuttle and crew safety. The previous full-scale wing hardware tests included an extension mast water table test and wing testing for random vibration, thermal vacuum, and acoustic environments. The results of these tests were used to define wing design modifications and to scope the test program for the experiment hardware. The experiment hardware acceptance test program will be completed in October 1982.