Solar panels on spacecraft

A solar panel array of the International Space Station (Expedition 17 crew, August 2008)

Spacecraft operating in the inner Solar System usually rely on the use of power electronics-managed photovoltaic solar panels to derive electricity from sunlight. Outside the orbit of Jupiter, solar radiation is too weak to produce sufficient power within current solar technology and spacecraft mass limitations, so radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) are instead used as a power source.[1][obsolete source]

  1. ^ NASA JPL Publication: Basics of Space Flight, Chapter 11. Typical Onboard Systems, Electrical Power Supply and Distribution Subsystems, "Basics of Space Flight Section II. Space Flight Projects". Archived from the original on 2008-05-18. Retrieved 2008-07-04.