RIT has been selected to receive $9.9 million from the federal government for research involving space power and propulsion.
Some of that funding will be shared with other academic partners. RIT will lead the United States Space Force University Consortium/Space Strategic Technology Institute 3 (SSTI) research.
As a center leader for the SSTI, RIT will work with other university partners to develop lower-cost, sustainable solar cells that can be used for power systems in space.
Seth Hubbard is director of the SSTI research center and is also a professor at RIT’s School of Physics and Astronomy.
He said a goal of this funding is to find materials that can increase the capabilities of the solar power now used to operate satellites and other technologies.
Hubbard said the need to create more robust solar cells is fueled by the increasing commercialization of space, with many more satellites being launched in recent years.
“In previous years the U.S. itself might only launch a handful of satellites into space, but…companies like Starlink are putting thousands of satellites a year into space,” Hubbard said.
”So there's an exponentially increasing demand for power systems, for these satellites, as we put more and more into space.“
Hubbard said researchers are “looking for things that are easily manufacturable, easily scaled, can withstand the very extreme environment in space.”
The RIT researchers are looking for cheaper materials that can withstand harsher environments for longer periods of time.
They are building of work by Ahmad Kirmani, an assistant professor in the School of Chemistry and Materials Science at RIT. He is working with a mineral called perskovite, which can be used in space applications.
Kirmani said that perskovites may be useful in applications where it could lead to one day being able to manufacture solar cells in a location such as the International Space Station or on a lunar base.
Kirmani said that perskovites “appear to hold up at energy levels and intensity levels far higher than silicon, and silicon has been used for powering space satellites.”
