Nebula Public Library

Light-trapping helps enhance the light absorption in space solar cells and hence enables their thickness to be reduced to increase the radiation hardness. We have optimised light-trapping structures (LTS) inspired in the diatom frustule and moth’s eyes. As a solar cell reference, we use the commercial 3G30C model from Azure Space Solar Power GmbH. We have developed a physical model to describe the solar cell absorption and derive the efficiency. The optical description relies on the Fourier modal method and the solar cell performance on the detailed balance limit.

The emergence of the classical world from quantum theory, and especially of a consensus among different observers, is a long-standing problem for the foundations of quantum theory. Using recent advances in multipartite quantum information theory, we shed light on these problems. Besides their interest for fundamental physics, they are related to quantum sensing and metrology using a quantum-network of stations, a situation of interest for the potential use of quantum-based measurement probes for exploring space and the Universe.

This study focused on the synergistic retrieval of cloud information from active and passive observations. While this synergistic approach is well established for precipitation, it is used less for clouds.

The increase of space debris means that active space debris removal is becoming more relevant. An active debris removal mission would have a positive effect (or risk reduction) for all satellites in the same orbital band. This leads to a dilemma: each space agency has an incentive to delay its actions and wait for others to respond. We model this scenario as a non-cooperative game between self-interested agents in which the agents are space agencies.