Lightweight solar cells in space

... for seven minutes in space, anyway. So reports Joule in a press-release widely bandied about.

The solar cells we're used to on Earth, and for that matter in space, are silicon wafers. They are hard, rigid, and heavy. They're working pretty well in a static environment that doesn't move around much. But Every Gram Counts when getting them off the ground, or even out of LEO where the space factory's at.

In other words, instead of by efficiency (watts per watt taken from the Sun) they judge by alpha (watts per cell's weight). If we're flying (or floating) then lower alpha means more room for actual freight. For that perovskite and organic cells look better. And they're more flexible too: they don't crack as fast.

It turns out that with perovskite we mightn't even be sacrificing efficiency. Another cool feature about the cells they just launched is that they take light even from Earth's reflection. I'd been hoping to do that over Venus' .75 albedo.

The next test is in "actual" space: in orbit.

UPDATE 12/7/22: Okay it wasn't going to last in orbit. NOW the test can be in orbit.