International Space Station
Let’s first look at how powerful the three-junction gallium arsenide solar panel is in the Tiangong and how it crushes the International Space Station.
1. Solar panels - Tiangong and the International Space Station PK
The International Space Station has nearly 400 tons, three experimental chambers and 31 scientific research cabinets. The power is provided by 8 112-foot (34-meter) long silicon solar cell arrays. The photoelectric conversion rate of is only 23%. The power supply of all is only 90 kilowatts. It also requires external heat sinks. The work and living space of astronauts is very small.
, while Tiangong Space Station is only 90 tons, it has been stuffed into 16 scientific experimental cabinets and 7 reserved experimental cabinets. The International Space Station has more than 9 times the weight, but it only has 7 more experimental cabinets than Tiangong. This space utilization rate was dropped by Tiangong several streets.
Tiangong Space Station uses four pairs of flexible triple-junction gallium arsenide solar panels to generate power, with a photoelectric conversion efficiency exceeding 30%, and a power supply power exceeding 100 kilowatts. space station solar cell wings are flexible wings, and the expansion area of can reach 134 square meters. After being closed, it is only the thickness of a book, and the overall volume is only 1/15 of those rigid solar wings of the International Space Station.
This is why, the space inside the Tiangong Space Station seems spacious and neat, while the International Space Station is small and messy.
China Tiangong Space Station
China's trijunction gallium arsenide solar cell technology is the world's number one, and the United States is greedy to cooperate with
Gallium arsenide is a new representative of III-V group semiconductor material . The band gap width Eg is 1.43eV. (Theoretical calculations show that when Eg is in the range of 1.2~1.6eV, the conversion efficiency is the highest) matching the solar spectrum, making it a very ideal solar cell material.
Gallium arsenide solar cell has single-junction, double-junction and triple-junction, and the maximum photoelectric conversion efficiency can exceed 50%, while traditional silicon solar cells are only a pitiful 23%. In the visible light range, the absorbance coefficient of silicon solar materials of the same thickness is only one-fifth of that of gallium arsenide.
Gallium arsenide, a representative of the second-generation semiconductor substrate material, is the most widely used and most produced compound semiconductor material in the world, and is also one of the most important microelectronic materials after silicon (Si) materials. GaAssinide is widely used in smartphones, fiber optic communications, , satellite communications, LED displays and solar cells.
GaArsenide
GaArsenide solar cells used in China's Tiangong Space Station are independently developed by my country and have reached the international leading level. Gallium arsenide is currently the most popular basic material research and development, and is a high-tech field that major countries must fight for. In the future, triple-junction gallium arsenide panel will inevitably become the main power supply material for spacecraft.
At present, trijunction gallium arsenide has become one of the core original materials in the high-end manufacturing industry, and there are only a few countries in the world that are capable of R&D and production. The production cost of gallium arsenide panels has always remained high. The cost of 1 square centimeter exceeds RMB 100 and the cost of 1 square meter exceeds RMB 1 million.
China is currently at the world's leading level in gallium arsenide solar cell technology. The solar power generation system of Tiangong Space Station is envious of it, so it actively cooperates with AltaDevices, a US subsidiary of China Hanergy Corporation, to conduct a one-year performance test of Hanergy's gallium arsenide thin film product on the International Space Station. If the performance requirements are met, Hanergy gallium arsenide-related technology products will be used on other spacecraft in NASA in the United States.
Gallium Arsenide Panel
It has to be said that China Hanergy's gallium arsenide thin-film solar technology is still very powerful. Its gallium arsenide technology maintains a number of global leading levels such as dual junction batteries (31.6%), single junction batteries (29.1%) conversion rates, and mass-produced components (25.1%).
The editor believes that Hanergy will not sell advanced gallium arsenide thin-film solar technology to NASA in the United States, but also hopes that Hanergy will pay attention to protecting its core technology and not let others quietly get rid of the technology. In addition, the United States is indeed much better than ours in terms of technological protection. If it were them, this kind of technology would never cooperate with us.
Don’t forget, the International Space Station led by the United States has specially kicked out our country. But it is also because of this that the birth of China's Tiangong Space Station was created. The International Space Station will be retired and fall in a few years. At that time, the only space station in China will be left in space. At that time, I will see how Ying Jiang will come to ask us.
There is an old saying in our country that goes well - "You don't care about me yesterday, but you can't afford to be with me today!"
