The Prospero Solar Cell Experiments.

The experiments have demonstrated the space worthiness and radiation resistance of very thin flexibly-mounted silicon cells and the superiority of ceria-stabilized glass over fused silicon as a coverslip material. The accuracy of performance and radiation damage predictions based on terrestrial measurements has been established. The behavior of the heavily pre-irradiated cells in the coverslip experiment appears to confirm the recently discovered photon degradation effect in float zone silicon of high dislocation density. But the effect is not yet evident in the thin cells which were not pre-irradiated.