Resumen
Consumable-free electron emitters are presently not feasible for autonomous tether-based deorbit devices such as E.T.PACK due to their power requirement. The bare-photovoltaic-tether (BPT) concept combines the bare tether electron collection with a tether segment, coated with thin film Copper Indium Gallium Selenide solar cells to harvest additional power for the cathodic contact, potentially enabling propellant-less operation. This thesis presents the first prototype of the photovoltaic tether segment, its architecture, its electrical characteristics, major challenges of the system and possible solutions. Photovoltaic tether segments of up to 3 m in length were manufactured, consisting of parallelized submodules of 25 cm in length. Due to space limitations, only the I-V-characteristics of these submodules were measured under a self-built Class BCA LED Solar-Simulator inside a vacuum chamber and at varying temperatures between -100 °C and 100 °C. In addition, the suitability of the concept for a low Earth orbit environment was assessed by performing atomic oxygen exposure tests using a microwave-based low pressure plasma atomic oxygen source. Based on the experimental data, a model is provided for predicting the performance of the photovoltaic segment in orbit, highlighting the main problems of the BPT: temperature, orientation and partial shading.