A comparison of solar-cell and battery-type power system for spacecraft

The electrical power systems of orbiting unmanned spacecraft generally consist of energy-conversion devices in combination with energy-storage and conditioning components. The development of efficient pulse-duration modulation regulators suggests configurations smaller, lighter, and cheaper than conventional dissipative voltage regulators. These savings may or may not be realizable, depending upon the system reliability design goal and amount of redundancy required to meet the goal. Three spacecraft electrical power systems, each containing a solar-cell energy converter and using different voltage regulation schemes, are compared for a common mission specification. Each system is made to meet a given reliability goal by a technique that adds redundant components in a manner that minimizes a system design characteristic such as weight. The reliability design goal is kept constant as mission length is increased, permitting system comparison in terms of weight and cost as a function of time.