As a company that routinely sells solar panels for use on satellites, Emcore is used to being out of this world. Yet they have to be a little bit excited by the prospect of their solar panels going to Mars. According to this just published press release;

"Emcore has just won a $2m contract from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Center for the design, manufacturing, testing and delivery of fully integrated solar panels for the Mars Cruise Stage spacecraft. This spacecraft is designed to carry the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover and communicate with the entry vehicle that will carry the rover to the surface of the planet. The launch of the spacecraft is planned for fall of 2009."

This news comes after last week's preliminary Q1 results which showed the solar division to be the fastest growing part of the business. Photovoltaics revenues for the first quarter of fiscal 2007 were $13.2 million - a revenue increase of 23% over the same period last year.

Space is a terrific market for solar power - there are of course no clouds, no air or actually anything to get in the way of the light particles. This translates into massively increased solar efficiency - in Emcore's case, a full 28.5% compared to a more typical 15% back on earth.

Having said that, once you get on to the surface of Mars, this declines rapidly, and way below that of Earth. That's because it is further away from the Sun, there is the occasional dust storm and one can reckon with an average of 590 watts per square metre of solar radiation compared to 1000 watts on Earth.