Made-in-India solar panels and power boards for small satellites
TL;DR Arraywright designs and builds the power system of a small satellite - deployable solar panels, battery packs and the board that manages them. Indian satellite startups and universities pay per flight set. It drops the seed's plan to beam solar power to Earth and sells space solar to the buyers who exist today.
Every small satellite needs a power system, and it is one of the parts most likely to end a mission early. Indian teams mostly import these from catalogue suppliers abroad, such as one Danish cubesat maker, which sells power boards, 100 Wh battery packs and deployable panels sized for 3U and 6U cubesats[1]. Imports mean dollar pricing and long lead times, and good luck getting quick help when your design needs to change.
Demand is rising. Counts of Indian space startups passed 440 by 2026[2], and many will fly a satellite of under 100 kg in their first years.
What it does, in regulatory terms: manufactures satellite components for other companies. It does not launch or operate a space object, so it needs no IN-SPACe mission authorisation of its own, though customers will need its test records for theirs.
The seed proposed collecting solar power in orbit and beaming it to Earth, and I reframed it. NASA's 2024 study found that two reference designs would produce electricity at 12–31 and 32–80 times the projected cost of ground-based renewables[3], and Caltech's 2023 test, the first wireless power transfer in space, lit two LEDs[4]. Two LEDs! That is science, not a business for a startup.
Arraywright keeps the solar-in-space link and sells the part with paying customers. It offers a small catalogue of panels, battery packs and power boards that share one interface, then tunes them to each mission. Every unit ships with thermal-vacuum and vibration test data, which saves the customer weeks.
The buyer is the systems engineer or founder at a satellite startup, plus university satellite labs and, later, larger integrators who want a second source. Payment is per flight set, often with a cheaper engineering model first. Catalogue suppliers abroad sell this hardware, but I couldn't find a public Indian price list, so your pricing has to come from quotes in the sprint.
Since April 2024, components and subsystems for space can take 100% foreign investment on the automatic route[2], which helps a hardware company raise. The 2023 space policy asks ISRO to move out of building operational satellites and hand that work to industry[5].
There is no public figure for India's demand for smallsat power systems. The narrowest signal is the customer count - 440-plus space startups by 2026[2], a group that includes firms building satellite platforms. Global catalogue suppliers selling complete power product lines[1] show the category exists. Treat startup counts as an upper bound.
That Danish supplier sells a full power line of boards, batteries and three panel types[1]. One Hyderabad firm builds satellite platforms in India[6], but whether it makes its own power hardware is not public. The gap is an independent Indian supplier whose units come with test data and engineering support in the customer's time zone.
| Difficulty | Hard (60/100) |
| Starting capital | ₹4–7.5 Cr |
| Time to launch | 18–24 months |
Space-grade solar cells and batteries mostly come from a handful of overseas makers, so supply is the first constraint. The second is flight heritage, because nobody wants to fly an untested power board and so your first units may have to fly at a discount on a friendly mission.
No mission licence. A component maker does not launch or operate a space object, so it needs no IN-SPACe authorisation of its own[5].
Building this outside India? The categories above usually have a local equivalent, so check with your own regulator.
Don't trust AI to sign off qualification. Flight approval rests on full test records reviewed by an engineer.
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This is a good fit if you have power electronics and space qualification experience. If you're drawn in by the space-solar story alone then I'd pass. Prove two things first - a supply contract for cells, and one customer willing to fly the first unit.
Plan for roughly ₹4–7.5 Cr, mostly on clean-room tools, test equipment and space-qualified cells.
No mission licence, since you don't operate a space object. You do need export checks for foreign sales and test records for customers' IN-SPACe filings.
Yes, small-satellite builders buy power systems worldwide. Check your country's export controls, which often cover space hardware.
The free Arraywright validation kit has the line-by-line capital breakdown, the effort scoring, the rules and export checklist, a 14-day validation sprint with pass/fail targets, a 90-day launch plan, 10 interview questions for satellite teams, and 5 assumptions to test. Download the kit →
Thinking about building Arraywright or something close to it? The make-or-break work is getting a first unit into orbit, and I'm happy to work through that plan with you. If you need a hand, you know where to find me. Talk to Yash →
For illustration only. Names are fictional and ideas hypothetical; sourced facts are real but may be out of date. Nothing here is legal, financial or professional advice, and Yash Khatri is not personally liable for any use of it. Read the full disclaimer.