III-V compound semiconductors, such as GaAs, have proven to be an ideal material system for photovoltaic devices—the highest power conversion efficiency demonstrated with a III-V-based technology is 40% higher than the best efficiency demonstrated with other materials systems. However, their high cost has limited III-V solar cells to applications where power production and efficiency are at a premium, such as power generation for satellites. A significant portion of production costs comes from the high resolution photolithography needed to transform epitaxial layer stacks into individual functioning devices. In this work, I will discuss our efforts to reduce III-V solar cell production cost by replacing photolithography with laser-based processing methods. In particular, I will focus on our work to isolate devices with femtosecond pulsed laser ablation rather than the standard photolithography and wet etch process, a change that replaces a 20 minute process with a 20 second process. In addition to speed, this work simplifies the process of device isolation-- for the most efficient multijunction devices, we can replace a etching process that is a research project to develop unto itself with a standardized laser process that works for most III-V solar cell designs. I will also discuss other emerging opportunities for laser-based processing to help bring the cost of III-V solar cells from satellites down to earth.