!%Emcore Corp.%! has been awarded a $6 million, two-year contract by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colo., to design, manufacture, test and deliver solar panels for a new spacecraft. The panels will be populated with Emcore’s ZTJ multijunction, space-grade solar cells, which deliver a beginning-of-life conversion efficiency nearing 30 percent, with the option for a patented, onboard monolithic bypass diode. Production of the solar cells and panels will take place at the company’s Albuquerque, N.M., manufacturing facilities.