Timelapse video showing engineers at Airbus’ facilities in France carrying out Biomass‘ tricky solar array deployment test – tricky because this is done in the cleanroom where gravity prevails and so this means that the test needs a rather complicated setup; of course, when it happens for real after the satellite has been injected into orbit, it will be free of gravity.
The solar array is a single wing comprising four panels. The panels open from the side of the satellite via a yoke, and once fully deployed the four panels rotate to a fixed angle. Outstretched, the wing has an area of just over five square metres and generates the power that the satellite needs.
Click here for original story, Deploying Biomass’ solar wing
Source: ESA Top Multimedia