Today it was announced that EMCORE corporation‘s Photovoltaic Division won $2M contract from NASA‘s JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) Center for the design and manufacturing of the solar panels for the new Mars Science Laboratory which is scheduled to launch for fall of 2009.

The new solar panels will be designed to deliver more than 1 Kilowatt of EOL power and to endure the powerful sunlight being 1.6 Astronomical Units from the sun....

EMCORE is the world‘s largest manufacturer of high efficient radiation hard solar cells for space power applications and their industry leading multijunction solar cells can provide currently the highest power to interplanetary spacecrafts. These solar cells have also been adapted for use in terrestrial concentrator applications and have attained conversion efficiency in excess of 37%. These products will make possible cost competitive concentrating photovoltaic systems for use in utility scale solar power plants.