Alignment of the field of illumination of the solar simulator based on a conical reflector

Simulation of space flight conditions for testing of spacecrafts and their individual systems on the Earth is an urgent problem in the field of space exploration today. Task of creating a solar simulator for ground testing of space-purpose solar cells based on pulsed xenon prolonged cylindrical lamp and a conical reflector is considered. Application of pulsed xenon lamp as a radiation source in solar simulators allows to reproduce the radiation of the sun closely by spectrum and flux density. Few divergent radiation flux can be obtained using axially symmetric mirrors (parabolic, parabolic-cylindrical, conical) with the sources of radiation in their focus. Important aspects of creating three- dimensional models of solar simulator for the study of its characteristics, as well as carrying out experimental verifica- tion of the adequacy of the created three-dimensional model are stated. Two methods are proposed to produce a solar simulator radiation flux corresponding to the required density, flux collimation, its spectrum. As artificial defocusing of the radiation source and the conical reflector as application of gradient shading the surface of the radiation source or conical reflector can reduce the nonuniformity of distribution of the radiant flux density by three times. Proposed ways of the incident radiation flux nonuniformity alignment for the testing of optical schemes are fundamentally appli- cable and effective. The proposed design of solar simulator is easy in technical execution, does not require significant capital and operating costs for its functioning. Further study of the proposed solar simulator model and its testing in the laboratory are assumed.