The Challenge

Today’s spacecraft solar arrays are heavy, bulky, and costly, relying on complex mechanical deployment systems that increase mass, cost, and technical risk. These mechanically intensive architectures limit scalability and constrain industrial production capacity

The Solution

We introduce a solar array architecture based on flexible silicon solar cells laminated onto lightweight, flexible substrate blankets and deployed using an lightweight deployment concept. The solution eliminates rigid panels, hinges, and complex mechanical mechanisms, enabling highly compact stowage and simplified system design.

Technology

The technology is inspired by the Solar Array Wings of the International Space Station , which are large deployable solar arrays with a total length of approximately 73 meters and have been installed since the year 2000.

The ISS solar arrays use a deployment architecture based on a beta-gimbal and mast-canister system. This system relies on a folded, accordion-style truss and blanket structure that is mechanically extended by a motor-driven mast, enabling the deployment of a large photovoltaic surface in orbit.

Astroflex Power follows the same fundamental principle — the deployment of a flexible solar blanket carrying photovoltaic cells — but with a significantly simplified, more cost-efficient, and scalable implementation.
Instead of a complex truss and motorized mast, the solar blanket deployment is driven by stored elastic strain energy , reducing system complexity, mass, and cost while maintaining scalability across different spacecraft classes.