ADDA: Almost direct drive architecture for solar high power electrical propulsion in new generation spacecrafts

This paper proposes a novel electrical power system architecture capable to efficiently transfer energy from a solar generator to high power electric thrusters of a spacecraft. The architecture is based on a maximum power point tracker that acts on a DC/DC converter connected between a subsection of the solar generator and the thrusters. The other sections of the solar generator, that deliver most of the total power, are directly connected to the thrusters. The novelty of the proposed architecture is that the maximum power point tracker is always operating and, while conditioning only a fraction of the total power, is able to transfer to the thrusters an amount of power greater than the handled one. ©2012 IEEE.