test panel for Mariner satellite solar cells
date: label: date made
content: ca 1961
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: This panel was made in 1960 during tests of solar cells for Project Mariner spacecraft. Batteries were cheap but too heavy and short-lived to use on spacecraft going to other planets in the solar system. Early solar cells were very expensive but lightweight and could produce power for years. After half a century this panel still produces direct current electricity; about .5 milliamps at 2.5 volts. There are no clouds in space to block the sun but sunlight is not very powerful. The further away from the sun a spacecraft is, the less sunlight is available for use. Only in the 2010s did engineers increase solar cell efficiency enough to allow solar powered missions to reach the orbit of Jupiter.
label: Location
content: Currently on loan
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
label: See more items in
content: Energy & Power
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Eugene L. Ralph
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2016.0070.24
label: accession number
content: 2016.0070
label: catalog number
content: 2016.0070.24
objectType: label: Object Name
content: photovoltaic panel
label: Object Name
content: solar panel
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 in x 6 3/4 in x 6 1/2 in; 5.08 cm x 17.145 cm x 16.51 cm