INTELLIGENCE VALUE
The SOLSTICE program aims to develop higher energy yielding systems for remote applications in space and terrestrial surface environments to help meet the U.S. Intelligence Community’s increasing need to power energy-intensive payloads.
SUMMARY
Power systems on platforms deployed in remote environments (e.g., space, desert, open ocean) frequently limit the operation and scope of onboard payloads and capabilities. Furthermore, challenging environmental conditions and human-created threats can diminish performance suddenly or over time thereby risking mission objectives. Resilient and higher energy-yielding power systems would allow for greater freedom of operation along with the use of high-energy-consuming capabilities that were previously challenging or impossible to implement. SOLSTICE will develop solar-powered and hybrid solar-powered systems that can be deployed either in space or on the earth surface and enable significantly higher mission lifetime energy yields than are possible today.
The SOLSTICE program will be a 48-month effort to develop new power systems that can achieve at least a 50%improvement in time-weighted system efficiency compared to current systems. Teams will initially focus on proving-out novel components and develop system-level models and designs that leverage those components. Subsequently, teams will assemble first-of-a-kind prototype power systems that will be assessed against a range of expected conditions. Finally, teams will demonstrate the scalability of their power systems and perform failure analysis testing to inform next-stage development. The program goal is to demonstrate power systems with at least a 30% time-weighted system efficiency for the first year of operation in either space or terrestrial surface environments.
PROPOSERS' DAY INFORMATION
SOLSTICE Proposers' Day Registration Site
