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Ascent Solar Technologies Partners with NASA to Advance Beamed Power Technology

Strategic Insights

— 2 min read

Ascent Solar Technologies, a leading innovator in the design and manufacture of flexible and durable CIGS thin-film photovoltaic solutions, has commenced work on a Collaborative Agreement Notice (CAN) with NASA to efficiently advance capabilities for receiving beamed power using CIGS PV modules. This public-private partnership aims to rapidly develop commercial products for enabling mission architectures to include beamed power, with a 12-month technology maturation program resulting in commercial products available for distributed space power infrastructure.

Key Takeaways:

  • The CAN program will evaluate the ability of Ascent's CIGS PV modules to generate power while illuminated by energy-dense beams of light, with goals to convert more usable power from the equivalent of tens of Earth's Sun.
  • The ability to remotely receive 10x more power on-demand while using the same PV cells tasked with collecting sunlight can significantly reduce solar array mass and volume required to meet mission power needs.
  • The CAN's goals include increasing the array power output while lengthening the operational duty cycles to verify that improvements to this emerging technology can help enable NASA to effectively and efficiently achieve the agency's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) missions, Artemis campaign to the Moon, and planetary science objectives.
  • This partnership has the potential to lead to an order of magnitude reduction in the downmass required to access expensive space exploration and science mission destinations, with estimated savings of tens of millions of dollars per lander mission.
  • Ascent's technology poses a potential solution for reducing spacecraft power system mass and volume needs, creating a significant impact on the overall mission.
  • The ability to receive beamed power will allow NASA program dollars to accomplish more at a fraction of the cost, and the establishment of critical Lunar infrastructure with less resources required facilitates achieving more together with international partners.
  • The collaboration with NASA further bolsters Ascent's belief in the unique capabilities of thin-film solar technology for reliably converting solar energy and receiving beamed power in harsh space environments.

Statistics:

  • The CAN program aims to reduce the cost, complexity, and risk of NASA missions by developing commercial products for distributed space power infrastructure.
  • The ability to remotely receive 10x more power on-demand can significantly reduce solar array mass and volume required to meet mission power needs.
  • The estimated savings per lander mission is tens of millions of dollars.
  • The downmass required to access expensive space exploration and science mission destinations could be reduced by an order of magnitude.
  • The partnership aims to improve PV efficiency, making Ascent's technology a crucial piece of future space missions.

Sources:

  • [1] Ascent Solar Technologies, "Ascent Solar Technologies to Partner with NASA to Advance Beamed Power Technology," GlobeNewswire, June 26, 2025.
  • [2] NASA, "NASA's Psyche Mission Demonstrates Deep Space Laser Communications," NASA.gov, [date not specified].
  • [3] Ascent Solar Technologies, "Ascent Solar Technologies Announces Progress in Development of Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) Products for Beamed Power Applications," GlobeNewswire, [date not specified].

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