Power Generation Impacts of Spacecraft Albedo During the Artemis I Mission
The Orion spacecraft is a deep space, crewed vehicle designed to support NASA’s Artemis exploration campaign. NASA successfully completed an uncrewed test flight of the Orion spacecraft during the 26-day Artemis I mission in November and December 2022. At numerous points during the mission, a small but measurable amount of power was generated by a solar array wing (SAW) while pointed away from the sun.
This presentation discusses an analysis of in-flight telemetry data to characterize this condition. Various potential sources of reflected light were examined, with self-reflection off the spacecraft itself having the largest impact. Different array and attitude configurations were studied to characterize the array response to this spacecraft albedo.
Related Artemis Documents
A Comparison of ARTEMIS Data with the Lunar Plasma Design Environment for NASA Crewed Missions
NASA’s Gateway will provide the capability for sustaining a human presence in cis-lunar space. Operations of the Gateway will include spacecraft dockings, extra vehicular activities (EVA), and high-po
A Comparison of ARTEMIS Observations and Particle-in-cell Modeling of the Lunar Photoelectron Sheath in the Terrestrial Magnetotail
As an airless body in space with no global magnetic field, the Moon is exposed to both solar ultraviolet radiation and ambient plasmas. Photoemission from solar UV radiation and collection of ambient
A Distributed Simulation Framework Applied to Artemis Analysis, Studies, Integration, and Test
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) established the Artemis Program, a series of missions to return humans to the Moon and explore further than before. To execute the Artemis miss