ISS solar panels, etc. Forum: Spacesettlers
Thread: ISS solar panels, etc.
# 12629 bybhn1700@... on Aug. 15, 2012, 7:35 p.m.
Member since 2021-10-03
I was looking up the VASIMR project for ISS to see where they were on using the waste H2 to assist with station keeping and learned that the VASIMR magnetic field when activated will induce a torque on the station due to the magnetic field of Earth. So they are going to make 2 100 kW engines instead of 1 200 kW engine so that they will cancel out each others effect, interesting in and of itself.
Also that the array is put into Night Glider mode when ISS is in Earth's shadow. Which puts the panels flat into the direction of the orbit to reduce drag, saving some 1,000 kg of fuel a year. I wondered though, if you tilted the panels very slightly from parallel to the ground if you could actually get a tiny amount of lift, making it more optimum then at zero degrees to the ground.
Brooks