Solar Plane
Solar Plane
Compute • CubeSatWe combine energy harvesting with efficient lift and a robust compute stack to push endurance while maintaining healthy control margins.
Highlights
- Modular wing sections for fast swaps of panel types and MPPT configurations.
- Live energy balance telemetry (harvest vs. load) with flight-time overlays.
- Ruggedized avionics bay: vibration-isolated compute, logging, and thermal management.
Overview
The platform targets sustained, energy-positive flight during daylight with graceful degradation at dawn and dusk. We iterate on airframe stiffness, mass distribution, and a power system that supports navigation, telemetry, and lightweight onboard processing without tipping the energy balance.
Approach
Each flight focuses on a single regime—climb, loiter, or cruise—while we log panel output, bus voltage, and control margins. We tune propeller choice, angle of attack, and MPPT parameters using steady-state models and field data until the system is reliably net-positive in typical daylight.
Results
Initial sorties show net-positive daytime power in calm conditions and stable telemetry across the envelope. Current work targets gust tolerance and optimizing panel layout to improve morning/evening yield without sacrificing controllability.
Gallery
