Spacecraft That Have Used Solar Power
To date, solar power, other than for propulsion, has been practical for spacecraft operating no farther from the sun than the orbit of Mars. For example, Magellan, Mars Global Surveyor, and Mars Observer used solar power as does the Earth-orbiting, Hubble Space Telescope. The Rosetta space probe, launched March 2, 2004, will use solar panels as far as the orbit of Jupiter (5.25 AU); previously the furthest use was the Stardust spacecraft at 2 AU. Solar power for propulsion was also used on the European lunar mission SMART-1 with a Hall effect thruster.
The Juno mission is the first mission to Jupiter to use solar panels instead of the traditional RTGs that are used by previous outer solar system missions. Another spacecraft of interest is Dawn which went into orbit around 4 Vesta in 2011. The potential for solar powered spacecraft beyond Jupiter has been studied.
Read more about this topic: Solar Panels On Spacecraft
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