Mars Pathfinder Lander Battery and Solar Array Performance
Mars Pathfinder Lander was powered by Ga-As solar cells and a silver-zinc Battery.
Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Perrone, D..
Mars Pathfinder Lander was powered by Ga-As solar cells and a silver-zinc Battery.
Sections of this discussion include: a mission overview of the Mars Pathfinder Project; battery requirements; Ag-Zn technology assessment; EM battery performance; and summary and conclusions.
Simulation of spacecraft battery operation is implemented. Robust design experiment to obtain optimum battery operational parameters is performed. It is found that short term tests using robust design of experiments can provide guidelines for optimum battery operation. It is decided to use robust design approach to provide guidelines for battery operation on current spacecraft in orbit as batteries age (GRO, UARS, EUVE, TOPEX).
Silver-zinc (Ag-Zn) battery technology has been baselined as the energy storage system for the MESUR mission. The mission profile will require the operation of this battery in a manner not usually seen for this technology. In particular, the combination of storage time followed by multiple cycles as a function of fluctuating temperatures and charge/discharge rates, and limited available time for charging has not been previously demonstrated.
Viewgraphs on the battery study for the Mars Environmental Survey (MESUR) Pathfinder are presented. Topics covered include: MESUR pathfinder introduction; power subsystem concept; battery technology selection; mission battery performance; cell/battery baseline design; charge methodology; and proposed testing.