4 ms·
Great info, much appreciated. Still seems like kind of a lot of something that's supposed to live in space for years at a time. Presumably solar panels recharg
by px43 6y ago
Great info, much appreciated. Still seems like kind of a lot of something that's supposed to live in space for years at a time.
Presumably solar panels recharge a battery when it can, but continuous operations seem out of the question without some pretty large panels.
Maybe I'm underestimating modern solar panels or something.
- madlag 6y agoEfficiency of solar panels on satellites is about 40%. That means ~ 700W/m2 if correctly oriented. That's quite a lot of power, even if you stay 50% of the time in night while orbiting Earth. So no need for huge panels usually. (Updated : more like 40%, not 50%)