Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing limitations in California, the committee and organizers of the APS4DS have made the decision to transition the event to a virtual format this year. While the value of face-to-face interaction is extremely important and the benefits impossible to fully duplicate in alternate formats, APS4DS topics and discussion must go on. We will be shortening the days, but increasing the number of parallel sessions over the three days to accommodate all of the presentations. There will be over 85 technical session talks over the three-day span.
Exploration of the solar system is entering its seventh decade. Along the way, innovations in power systems have played a critical role in expanding this exploration campaign, which now features missions to Kuiper Belt objects and interstellar space. The key role of power systems is evidenced by the Voyager spacecraft, that still operate on radioisotope thermoelectric generators after more than 40 years in space. The Juno mission is utilizing the largest area solar array ever flown into deep space, operating at the farthest distance an array has ever powered a spacecraft.
Innovation continues to drive an ever-growing list of mission enhancing and mission enabling technologies for deep space exploration, including higher efficiency power electronics, low irradiance/low temperature solar cells, radioisotope and fission power systems, and advanced energy storage technologies. Exciting new missions driven by these innovations are on the horizon, including sample return missions, powered flight on Mars and Titan, exploration of the ocean worlds, missions to the ice giants, and plans to return to the Moon. Advanced mission concepts such as in situ resource utilization, power beaming, climbing robots, landers surviving the lunar night and sub-surface access/exploration on ocean worlds will all depend on more capable power systems in the coming decades.
The 2020 Conference on Advanced Power Systems for Deep Space Exploration will pick up where the 2018 conference left off and look again to the future of deep space power systems.
Conference will focus on power systems and technologies for future deep space science and exploration missions
Conference speakers will include program managers, mission planners and architects, power system engineers and power technologists