Detectors & Imaging

Solar Panel contract for NASA lunar mission awarded to EMCORE

Oct. 31, 2011

Albuquerque, NM--ARTS awarded a contract to EMCORE Corporation for solar panels for NASA's LADEE lunar mission.

Albuquerque, NM--ASRC Research and Technology Solutions (ARTS; Greenbelt, MD) awarded a contract for the design, manufacturing, and delivery of solar panels for NASA Ames' Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) mission to EMCORE Corporation (Nasdaq:EMKR), a provider of compound semiconductor-based components and subsystems for the fiber optic and solar power markets.

LADEE is a robotic lunar mission designed to orbit the Moon and both study and characterize the lunar atmosphere, including fine dust particles suspended above the lunar surface. The spacecraft is currently scheduled to be launched in early 2013 aboard a Minotaur V vehicle from the Wallops Flight Facility (Wallops Island, VA). A total of 32 solar panels will be built for LADEE at EMCORE's manufacturing facilities in Albuquerque, NM.

"This contract is an exciting award for EMCORE, and we are proud to support NASA's newest lunar mission," said Christopher Larocca, COO for EMCORE. "EMCORE has previously been awarded solar panel contracts for several other NASA missions, including the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and the Magnetospheric Multi-Scale (MMS) missions. We appreciate NASA's continued confidence in EMCORE to supply solar panels for their demanding spacecraft power systems."

EMCORE manufactures efficient radiation-hard solar cells for space power applications. With a beginning-of-life (BOL) conversion efficiency nearing 30% and the option for a patented, onboard monolithic bypass diode, EMCORE's multi-junction solar cells provide the highest available power to interplanetary spacecraft and earth orbiting satellites. EMCORE's Fiber Optic segment offers optical components, subsystems, and systems for high-speed data and telecommunications networks, cable television (CATV), and fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) applications. For terrestrial applications, EMCORE is adapting its high-efficiency GaAs solar cells for use in solar concentrator systems.

SOURCE: EMCORE Corporation via Yahoo Finance; http://finance.yahoo.com/news/EMCORE-Awarded-Solar-Panel-pz-906944047.html

About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.