Alphabus Solar Array- Versatile and Powerful Solar Arrays for Tomorrow's Commercial Telecom Satellites

After the successful series of Eurostar 3000 and Spacebus 4000 satellites and due to the demand of satellite operators for even larger and more powerful satellites, ESA decided to co-fund the development of a new satellite platform which covers the market segment beyond the upper limits of both satellite families.The new satellite bus family Alphabus is developed in the frame of ARTES 8 project by a joint project team of ASTRIUM and TAS, whereas the solar array is developed by ASTRIUM GmbH.The main approaches in this design phase for the Alphabus solar array were to find a standardized and scaleable design to production and to use qualification heritage from former projects, especially Eurostar 3000, as far as possible. The main challenges for the solar array design and test philosophy were the usage of lateral deployment and related sequential deployment and the bus voltage of 102,5V and related ESD precautions.This paper provides an overview of the different configurations, their main design features and performance parameters. In addition it summarizes the development and verification approach and shows the actual qualification status.