Alba: Testing Emerging Photovoltaic Technologies in Low-Earth Orbit

Caltech' SSPD-1 mission seeks to investigate three key technologies relevant for the development of space-based solar power: ultralight radiation-tolerant photovoltaics, wireless power transfer, and compact lightweight deployable structures. The mission comprises three experimental modules with shared central avionics, integrated as a hosted payload on the Momentus Vigoride 5 vehicle. The photovoltaics module is Alba. It features (32) small-area research cells with accompanying instrumentation capable of recording I-V sweep data as well as temperature and sun angle. The mission launched successfully to low-earth orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 Transporter flight on January 3, 2023, and is currently undergoing initialization activities, which will be followed by approximately six months of data collection prior to deorbit. We plan to present data collected to-date from the flight.