Apprenticeship 2017-2018: Brandt Lomen

When building satellites and space hardware, accurate testing environment is 
vital to mission success. By recreating the conditions hardware will interact with in space, the 
engineers have a better understanding of the device and how it will operate. The Pseudo-Sun 
Instrument (PSI) will create the light spectrum of the sun by using a combination of 21 different 
LED colors for the characterization of solar cells. It is more cost effective than other solar 
simulators and has the ability to change its spectrum to mimic the solar spectrum from low earth 
orbit and light spectrums on the surface of Earth. The completion of this device will allow for 
more thorough testing and will prove that LED based solar simulators are not only possible but 
also practical.