2023 Volume 1 Article ID: 22
Perovskite solar cell (PSC) is a novel type of solar cell and can be thin, flexible, and lightweight. Considering these advantages, PSCs have the potential for applications in inflatable structures, such as plastic film-type balloon envelopes. This study developed PSCs to form on the plastic envelopes of stratospheric balloons used in space science researches. The development was performed step-by-step by proceeding with both ground (in the laboratory) and flight (in the actual flight environment) tests iteratively in parallel. As the first step of flight tests, a small test platform system was developed to evaluate small PSC specimens, and their flight tests in 2019 and 2021 were performed by hanging them beneath rubber balloons. In the course of the balloon flights reaching a maximum altitude of around 30 km, the current–voltage curves of PSCs were obtained as expected. The platform housekeeping data was also obtained and it was found that the platform attitude was significantly and continuously disturbed throughout the flight. The obtained attitude data will provide guidelines not only for the current project but also to design other rubber balloon experiments.
