Anti-electrostatic panel

摘要

Undesirable electrostatic fields associated with dielectric surfaces of a solar panel cell array (60<0>, 60<1>...) are reduced by a transparent conductive coating (70), which may be indium tin oxide, formed on the surface of the coverglass (62) of each individual solar cell of the array. In a preferred embodiment, conductive elastomer (74) is used to interconnect the transparent conductive coatings. The coatings may be connected to the spacecraft structure to prevent the fields from building up. This permits instruments sensitive to the fields to be used.