Power System

How do solar panels supply energy for spacecraft?

What's an electron?

There are different ideas of what an electron is.  One idea syas that an electron is part of an atom. Depending on the kind of atom, an atom can have 1 to 103 electrons. Each electron is extremely tiny. The mass (weight) of an electron is approximately equal to 1/1836 that of a hydrogen atom, which has one electron and one proton, so an electron is 1/1836th the size of a proton. Electrons carry a small electronically negative charge.

In this model, electrons are in constant motion around the center of the atom. While tiny, they can be very important. Electrons can be disassociated, or stripped away from the atom to make an atom charged, make electrical current, or make a gas behave like a plasma.


What is an atom?
What is an ion?

What's electron flow?
How are atoms charged?
What is plasma?