Speaker: Professor Louise Hirst, Dept. of Physics/Dept. of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge
Satellites provide essential communications, navigation and Earth-imaging services to a wide range of sectors, including emergency services, agriculture, energy networks, transport and logistics. The systems that deliver these services are powered by photovoltaics, but space solar cells face very different challenges from their terrestrial counterparts. They must be lightweight while operating reliably in the extreme space environment, where they are exposed to particle radiation and large temperature variation. Demand for satellite services is growing rapidly, with the number of objects launched into space more than doubling year-on-year in 2025. At the same time, emerging applications based on large-scale space infrastructure, including space data centres, lunar bases, on-orbit manufacturing and space-based solar power, could increase the power requirements of space systems from watts to gigawatts. This talk will explore how space photovoltaic technology is evolving to meet these challenges.
03 Nov 2026
4:30 pm
Via Zoom