Ascent Solar Technologies Enters Collaborative Agreement Notice with NASA to Advance Development of Thin-Film PV Power Beaming Capabilities
Ascent Solar Technologies (Nasdaq: ASTI) has entered into a 12-month Collaborative Agreement Notice (CAN) with NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and NASA Glenn Research Center to advance thin-film PV power beaming capabilities. The collaboration aims to develop CIGS PV modules capable of generating power from energy-dense light beams at intensities up to 10 times that of Earth's Sun.
The partnership builds on NASA's successful 2023 Psyche Mission demonstration of deep space laser communications and 2024 bench-testing of Ascent's commercial products. This technology could significantly reduce spacecraft mass and volume requirements, potentially saving millions per lunar mission, where delivery costs range from $1-10 million per kilogram.
Ascent Solar Technologies (Nasdaq: ASTI) ha stipulato un Accordo Collaborativo di 12 mesi (CAN) con il NASA Marshall Space Flight Center e il NASA Glenn Research Center per sviluppare le capacità di trasmissione di energia tramite moduli fotovoltaici a film sottile. La collaborazione punta a realizzare moduli fotovoltaici CIGS in grado di generare energia da fasci di luce ad alta densità con intensità fino a 10 volte quella del Sole terrestre.
La partnership si basa sul successo della missione Psyche del 2023 di NASA, che ha dimostrato le comunicazioni laser nello spazio profondo, e sui test di laboratorio del 2024 dei prodotti commerciali di Ascent. Questa tecnologia potrebbe ridurre significativamente massa e volume dei veicoli spaziali, con potenziali risparmi di milioni di dollari per missioni lunari, dove i costi di trasporto variano da 1 a 10 milioni di dollari per chilogrammo.
Ascent Solar Technologies (Nasdaq: ASTI) ha firmado un Acuerdo Colaborativo de 12 meses (CAN) con el NASA Marshall Space Flight Center y el NASA Glenn Research Center para avanzar en las capacidades de transmisión de energía mediante módulos fotovoltaicos de película delgada. La colaboración busca desarrollar módulos fotovoltaicos CIGS capaces de generar energía a partir de haces de luz de alta densidad con intensidades hasta 10 veces la del Sol terrestre.
La asociación se basa en el exitoso demostración de la misión Psyche de la NASA en 2023 sobre comunicaciones láser en espacio profundo y en las pruebas de banco realizadas en 2024 con los productos comerciales de Ascent. Esta tecnología podría reducir significativamente la masa y el volumen de las naves espaciales, ahorrando potencialmente millones en misiones lunares, donde los costos de entrega oscilan entre 1 y 10 millones de dólares por kilogramo.
Ascent Solar Technologies (나스닥: ASTI)는 NASA 마샬 우주 비행 센터와 NASA 글렌 연구 센터와 함께 12개월 협력 계약 통지서(CAN)를 체결하여 박막 태양광 전력 전송 기술을 발전시키고자 합니다. 이번 협력은 지구 태양 광도 대비 최대 10배 강도의 고밀도 빔에서 전력을 생성할 수 있는 CIGS 태양광 모듈 개발을 목표로 합니다.
이번 파트너십은 NASA가 2023년 Psyche 미션에서 심우주 레이저 통신을 성공적으로 시연하고, 2024년 Ascent의 상용 제품에 대한 벤치 테스트를 수행한 성과를 기반으로 합니다. 이 기술은 우주선의 무게와 부피를 크게 줄여, 달 탐사 임무에서 킬로그램당 100만~1,000만 달러에 달하는 운송 비용을 수백만 달러 절감할 수 있는 잠재력을 지니고 있습니다.
Ascent Solar Technologies (Nasdaq : ASTI) a conclu un Accord Collaboratif de 12 mois (CAN) avec le NASA Marshall Space Flight Center et le NASA Glenn Research Center afin de faire progresser les capacités de transmission d'énergie par modules photovoltaïques à couche mince. Cette collaboration vise à développer des modules photovoltaïques CIGS capables de générer de l'énergie à partir de faisceaux lumineux à haute densité, avec des intensités allant jusqu'à 10 fois celle du Soleil terrestre.
Ce partenariat s'appuie sur la démonstration réussie par la NASA en 2023 de la mission Psyche sur les communications laser en espace lointain, ainsi que sur les tests en laboratoire réalisés en 2024 avec les produits commerciaux d'Ascent. Cette technologie pourrait réduire considérablement la masse et le volume des engins spatiaux, permettant potentiellement d'économiser des millions de dollars par mission lunaire, où les coûts de transport varient entre 1 et 10 millions de dollars par kilogramme.
Ascent Solar Technologies (Nasdaq: ASTI) hat eine 12-monatige Kooperationsvereinbarung (CAN) mit dem NASA Marshall Space Flight Center und dem NASA Glenn Research Center geschlossen, um die Fähigkeiten der Energieübertragung mittels Dünnschicht-Photovoltaik zu verbessern. Ziel der Zusammenarbeit ist die Entwicklung von CIGS-Photovoltaikmodulen, die Strom aus energiedichten Lichtstrahlen mit einer Intensität von bis zu 10-facher Sonnenstrahlung der Erde erzeugen können.
Die Partnerschaft baut auf der erfolgreichen Demonstration der NASA Psyche-Mission 2023 zur Laserkommunikation im tiefen Weltraum sowie auf den Labortests 2024 mit kommerziellen Produkten von Ascent auf. Diese Technologie könnte die Masse und das Volumen von Raumfahrzeugen erheblich reduzieren und somit potenziell Millionen bei Mondmissionen einsparen, bei denen die Transportkosten zwischen 1 und 10 Millionen US-Dollar pro Kilogramm liegen.
- Technology could enable 10x more power generation capacity from same PV cells
- Potential for significant cost savings in lunar missions through reduced spacecraft mass
- Previous successful bench-testing validation by NASA MSFC in 2024
- Technology could enable survival during lunar night and access to permanently shadowed regions
- None.
Insights
NASA partnership validates Ascent's CIGS technology with potential to revolutionize space power systems through beamed power capabilities.
Ascent Solar's new collaboration with NASA represents a significant technological advancement in space power systems. The 12-month Collaborative Agreement Notice (CAN) aims to develop CIGS thin-film photovoltaic modules capable of receiving beamed power at intensities equivalent to tens of Earth's suns. The technology has already shown promise, with NASA's bench-testing in 2024 validating Ascent's commercial-off-the-shelf products.
The technical implications are substantial. Traditional spacecraft power systems represent a major portion of mass and volume budgets. By potentially enabling the same PV cells to generate 10x more power on-demand through beamed energy, this technology could dramatically reduce the size of required solar arrays. This efficiency translates directly to mission economics - smaller power systems mean more payload capacity for scientific instruments and exploration equipment.
Particularly noteworthy is the application for lunar missions. The technology could help solve the critical challenge of surviving the lunar night and powering exploration of permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) where water resources are believed to exist. With lunar payload delivery costs running at
While still in development, NASA's multi-center involvement indicates serious institutional commitment to the technology. The successful demonstration of laser communications across 19 million miles by NASA's Psyche Mission provides encouraging precedent for the feasibility of tight-beam energy transmission over vast distances - a key requirement for the proposed power beaming architecture.
THORNTON, Colo., June 26, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ascent Solar Technologies (Nasdaq: ASTI) (“Ascent” or the “Company”), the leading U.S. innovator in the design and manufacture of featherweight, flexible, and durable CIGS thin-film photovoltaic (PV) solutions, announced today that the company is commencing work on a Collaborative Agreement Notice (CAN) with NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and support from NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) to efficiently advance capabilities for receiving beamed power using CIGS PV modules.
The CAN program targets rapid iterative development to mature commercial products for enabling mission architectures to include beamed power. The public-private partnership includes Ascent contributing design and prototyping services with NASA providing technical subject matter expertise and test services through combined MSFC & GRC efforts. This 12-month technology maturation will result in commercial products being made available for distributed space power infrastructure, drastically lowering the cost, complexity and risk of NASA missions.
Launched in 2023, NASA’s Psyche Mission has demonstrated deep space laser communications across 19 million miles of space, validating the efficacy of tight-beaming technologies over vast distances. Bench-testing conducted by NASA MSFC in 2024 demonstrated receiving beamed power using Ascent’s commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products as a preceding validation of the technology prior to the CAN award.
The CAN is evaluating the ability of Ascent’s CIGS PV modules to generate power while illuminated by energy-dense beams of light, with goals to convert more usable power from the equivalent of tens of Earth’s Sun. The ability to remotely receive 10x more power on-demand while using the same PV cells tasked with collecting sunlight can significantly reduce solar array mass and volume required to meet mission power needs. In practice, this suggests that beamed-power architectures can lead to reductions of both spacecraft mass and volume budgets. These size efficiencies will result in agency payloads proportionally increasing relative to the spacecraft as a whole, thus allowing the prioritization of more technology, science and exploration within limited mission budgets.
Planetary missions require advanced surface mobility logistics and depend on power generation subsystems that comprise a substantial proportion of the landed downmass. It is here where Ascent technology poses a potential solution for reducing spacecraft power system mass and volume needs, creating a significant impact on the overall mission.
The CAN’s goals include increasing the array power output while lengthening the operational duty cycles to verify that improvements to this emerging technology can help enable NASA to effectively and efficiently achieve the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) missions, Artemis campaign to the Moon, and planetary science objectives. This includes enabling surviving the lunar night as well as powering remote access to areas of scientific interest such as cold traps and permanently shadowed regions on the Moon (PSRs) where water, the potential key to lunar in-situ resource utilization (ISRU), is believed to be located in high concentrations. Ultimately, this could lead to an order of magnitude reduction in the downmass required to access expensive space exploration and science mission destinations. The going rate for robotic landers on the Moon is between 6 & 7-figures per kilogram delivered to the lunar surface, equating to upwards of tens of millions of potential savings per lander mission.
“This collaboration with NASA further bolsters our longstanding belief that the unique capabilities of thin-film solar technology will play an integral role in overcoming the challenges of reliably converting solar energy and also receive beamed power in a breadth of harsh space environments,” said Paul Warley, CEO of Ascent Solar Technologies. “Through our work together, we plan to bring an even more capable product line to market that will reduce mission costs and complexities while improving PV efficiency, making our technology a crucial piece of future space missions.”
This cross-NASA-center teaming is demonstrative of rallying together with commercial partners to achieve the agency’s broader Lunar program goals. Beamed power stands to allow NASA program dollars to accomplish more at a fraction of the cost. With 55 countries having signed the Artemis Accords since 2020, the establishment of critical Lunar infrastructure with less resources required facilitates achieving more together with international partners.
About Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc.
Backed by 40 years of R&D, 15 years of manufacturing experience, numerous awards, and a comprehensive IP and patent portfolio, Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of innovative, high-performance, flexible thin-film solar panels for use in environments where mass, performance, reliability, and resilience matter. Ascent’s photovoltaic (PV) modules have been deployed on space missions, multiple airborne vehicles, agrivoltaic installations, in industrial/commercial construction as well as an extensive range of consumer goods, revolutionizing the use cases and environments for solar power. Ascent Solar’s research and development center and 5-MW nameplate production facility is in Thornton, Colorado. To learn more, visit https://www.ascentsolar.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this press release that are not statements of historical or current fact constitute "forward-looking statements" including statements about the financing transaction, our business strategy, and the potential uses of the proceeds from the transaction. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other unknown factors that could cause the company's actual operating results to be materially different from any historical results or from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. We have based these forward-looking statements on our current assumptions, expectations, and projections about future events. In addition to statements that explicitly describe these risks and uncertainties, readers are urged to consider statements that contain terms such as “will,” "believes," "belief," "expects," "expect," "intends," "intend," "anticipate," "anticipates," "plans," "plan," to be uncertain and forward-looking. No information in this press release should be construed as any indication whatsoever of our future revenues, stock price, or results of operations. The forward-looking statements contained herein are also subject generally to other risks and uncertainties that are described from time to time in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including those discussed under the heading “Risk Factors” in our most recently filed reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q.
Media Contact
Spencer Herrmann
FischTank PR
ascent@fischtankpr.com
FAQ
What is the purpose of Ascent Solar's collaboration with NASA?
How long is ASTI's NASA collaboration agreement?
What are the potential cost savings from ASTI's power beaming technology?
What was the result of NASA's 2024 testing of Ascent Solar's technology?
How could ASTI's technology benefit lunar exploration?
