Degradation of solar cells due to in orbit electrostatic discharge?

International audience; As the main activity of the ESA EMAGS3 study (published at 12th SCTC Kitakyushu, Japan) in orbit elec-trostatic discharge, called flash-over, has been simulated on a flight representative panel of dimensions 2 by 4 meters in an environment to achieve inverted gradient conditions on the solar cells. Although not planned within the said study, electrical performance was measured after the panel has suffered from virtually hundreds of flash-over, some of them covering the whole surface. Comparison with the last measurements before testing revealed no degradation beyond measurement error. Obvious differences could be attributed to differences in the circuit. Accompanying experiments on single cells fully support this observation.