Announcement: SciChart Powers Rocket Lab’s SolAero Test Applications for Space Solar Technology Innovation

SciChart, a leader in high-performance precision charting, marks a decade of use in Rocket Lab’s Design and Test Suites across WPF and JavaScript. This partnership has enabled Rocket Lab to deliver unparalleled efficiency and reliability in its space-grade solar products, which currently power over 1,100 satellites in orbit. With an additional 500 scheduled for launch, we foresee plenty of development in robust, renewable energy to power advancements in space exploration.

Rocket Lab’s Next-Gen Space Solar Tech Powered by SciChart’s Precision Data Visualization

Rocket Lab’s SolAero solar cells and assemblies are among the most advanced in the world, achieving the highest efficiency commercially available at 34% with more than 4 MW of power delivered for flight missions.

The integration of SciChart’s high-performance visualization tools into their design and testing processes has accelerated the development of next-generation technologies like Next-Gen Z+ and IMM-β, paving the way for even higher-efficiency solar products in future missions.

About SciChart:

SciChart is the world’s fastest, precision data visualization software, used by top global companies in sectors ranging from healthcare, signal processing and engineering to aerospace and scientific research.

With cross-platform compatibility, high-performance rendering, and real-time analysis capabilities, SciChart empowers businesses and research institutions to process complex datasets with unparalleled speed and accuracy. SciChart is used by F1 racing teams, NASA mission command centers and to conduct pioneering healthcare research.

What is Space Solar Design and Test Software?

Space solar design and test software provides tools for developing, verifying, and optimizing engineering components and systems.

In Rocket Lab’s context, this involves rigorous testing of solar cells and solar cell arrays under conditions mimicking space environments. This ensures reliability and performance through the use of custom-developed solutions. Where more typical off-the-shelf solutions lacked flexibility or performance, SciChart excelled.

Data visualization, a critical component of design and test software, transforms raw performance data into clear, interactive visual formats. This allows engineers to:

• Monitor real-time data during tests.
• Identify anomalies or deviations quickly.
• Analyze trends and correlations to optimize design and performance.
• Validate results with intuitive visual reports.

SciChart’s high-performance visualization tools empower Rocket Lab’s engineers to efficiently process and analyze vast datasets. We don’t just provide the precision and quality for engineering space-grade products; we also achieve advanced optimizations leading to sector advances.

Overcoming Challenges in Space Solar Testing with SciChart

The design and testing of space-grade solar technologies, such as Next-Gen Z+ and IMM-β solar cells, present unique challenges. Ensuring performance, precision, and scalability requires specialized tools that surpass generic commercial solutions.

Here’s how SciChart, with our advanced WPF Chart Library and JavaScript Chart Library, powers bespoke dashboards to address these critical issues.

Challenges in Testing Space Solar Technologies

Rocket Lab’s testing environments are intense. Exposure to intense radiation, vacuum chambers, and extreme thermal cycling requires high-performance software. Processing massive datasets with precision under extreme test conditions is critical.

How SciChart Solves These Problems

“SciChart is proud to be an essential part of Rocket Lab’s innovation in space-grade solar technology. Our high-performance data visualization software enables engineers to process and analyze complex test data with speed and accuracy, driving advancements that push the boundaries of what’s possible in space exploration,” said Andrew Burnett-Thompson, CEO of SciChart.

Unmatched Performance:

Powered by the Visual Xccelerator engine, SciChart delivers real-time, high-speed rendering of large datasets, enabling engineers to process high-frequency data streams across platforms without slowdown.

Customizability for Dashboards:

SciChart’s flexible tools allow the creation of tailored dashboards and visualizations to match the diverse test conditions of solar cell technologies, whether in WPF Chart Library or JavaScript Chart Library environments. We also now boast Linux support through our partnership with Avalonia XPF.

Simulate in Real-Time Through the Chart:

Custom Modifiers and an expansive API enable rich interactions out of the box, allowing for real-time modelling, and simulations directly from the GUI, seeing outcomes from engineer-led tweaks in real time.

High-Volume, High-Frequency Data:

Testing solar cells involves collecting immense amounts of performance data, including current, voltage, and efficiency metrics. This data is sampled at high frequencies across multiple test conditions. SciChart ensures real-time visualization without delays.

Diverse Test Conditions:

With solar cells tested under extreme environments, SciChart’s adaptable dashboards provide engineers with clear insights across different scenarios.

Precision and Accuracy:

Space-grade solar cells must achieve stringent efficiency and reliability benchmarks. SciChart’s advanced algorithms ensure the exact representation of test data, critical for meeting rigorous performance standards. Advanced algorithms ensure the exact representation of test data, critical for meeting the rigorous performance standards of space solar technologies.

Scalability:

Rocket Lab’s production pipeline, producing over 4 MW of solar cells annually, demands scalable testing systems. SciChart supports expanding datasets and production needs seamlessly, with the ability to process billions of data points in real-time with WPF and millions of data points with JavaScript. SciChart supports Rocket Lab’s expanding datasets and growing production needs, providing seamless scalability for both small-scale tests and large-scale operations.

Advanced Analysis Features for Complex Data:

Advanced analysis features include multi-series analysis, trend overlays, and interactive visual exploration. All these empower engineers to quickly identify patterns, compare historical performance, and optimize next-generation designs.

Comparing performance across iterations, overlaying historical data, and identifying degradation trends are essential for optimizing solar cell designs. Conventional tools lack the capabilities for such advanced analysis. However, this is yet another feature where SciChart excels, with unparalleled customizations and flexibility.

Developers can leverage out-of-the-box code samples or build from scratch to meet the stakeholder and end user requirements for complex data visualizations.

Data Visualization for Design, Test and Emulation

SciChart enables our clients to create custom, cutting-edge solutions, pushing the boundaries of research and development.

Our high-performance rendering engine, designed with novel requirements and backed by over 20 years of research, helps bring next-generation projects to life on anything from mobile devices and embedded hardware to remotely accessible browsers.

SciChart is the only high-performance precision 64-bit library built for data accuracy and integrity, available on WPF, JavaScript, iOS, Android, and macOS with support for Linux through our partnership with Avalonia XPF.

Learn More

For more information on SciChart’s role in aerospace innovation and high-performance data visualization, contact us or sign up for our free trial.