Battery Design and Safety
Power is essential for crewed and uncrewed spaceflight operations. Spacecraft batteries are designed and tested to be safe under extreme environmental conditions.
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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
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Power is essential for crewed and uncrewed spaceflight operations. Spacecraft batteries are designed and tested to be safe under extreme environmental conditions.
Simulator verifies proper operation of a battery cell voltage-monitoring device. It also contains variable ac voltage to ascertain that a battery scanner will perform its function at all possible ac voltages.
Method of constructing nickel cadmium batteries prevents excessive gas buildup and allows hermetic sealing of battery for increased service life and reduced maintenance cost.
Ionic transport characteristics of ionenes, insoluble membranes from soluble polyelectrolyte compositions, are studied for possible application in a battery separator. Effectiveness of the thin film of separator membrane essentially determines battery lifetime.
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.
Thin coating of high-temperature epoxy resin provides necessary electrical insulation, as well as good thermal conductivity between battery cells. Insulation increases efficiency of nickel-cadmium battery, as it would any multicell battery assembly in which cell-to-cell thermal balance is critical.
The Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) silver/zinc (Ag/Zn) battery is an 11 cell battery of approximately 30 AH. The Ag/Zn battery is comprised of two 4-cell monoblocks and one 3-cell monoblock. A discussion of a wet-life extension test performed on the battery is given in viewgraph form.
Life cycle tests being run on the 50 A lightweight nickel hydrogen flight battery are discussed and the preliminary results are presented.
ETS-6 satellite's Ni-Cd and NI-H2 battery performance is evaluated. Flight data and ground data are compared.
The nickel-cadmium battery design developed for the Synchronous Meteorological Satellite (SMS) and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) provided background and guidelines for future development, manufacture, and application of spacecraft batteries. SMS/GOES battery design, development, qualification testing, acceptance testing, and life testing/mission performance characteristics were evaluated for correlation with battery cell manufacturing process variables.
Goddard Space Flight Center has "pioneered" rechargeable secondary battery design, test, infusion and in-orbit battery management among NASA installations. Nickel cadmium batteries of various designs and sizes have been infused for LEO, GEO and Libration Point spacecraft. Nickel-Hydrogen batteries have currently been baselined for the majority of our missions. Li-Ion batteries from ABSL, JSB, SaFT and Lithion have been designed and tested for aerospace application.
Charge-state model for lead/acid batteries proposed as part of effort to make equivalent of fuel gage for battery-powered vehicles. Models based on equations that approximate observable characteristics of battery electrochemistry. Uses linear equations, easier to simulate on computer, and gives smooth transitions between charge, discharge, and recuperation.
Quantitative ataxia test battery to assess psychomotor performance and postural equilibrium under rotating environments and other stresses
Development and testing of improved sealed Ag-Zn battery for Mariner 1969
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A design program for the development of a nickel hydrogen battery is described. The design and design advantages of the battery are discussed. The general characteristics of the battery such as the strain gage cell pressure monitoring and the automatic low temperature heater control are reported along with the performance characteristics.
Cycle life analysis of the nickel cadmium battery is given. The life prediction equation is limited to spacecraft in low Earth orbits.
Battery cell wear out mechanisms and signatures are examined and compared to orbital data from the six on-orbit Hubble Space Telescope (HST) batteries, and the Flight Spare Battery (FSB) Test Bed at Marshall Space Fiight Center (MSFC), which is instrumented with individual cell voltage monitoring.