TOPEX/Poseidon: Electrical power system-lessons learned

Author

Chetty, P.R.K. ; Richardson, R. ; Sherwood, Robert

Author_Institution

Kris Eng. Inc., 14120 Stonecutters Drive, N. Potomac, MD, USA

Volume

12

Issue

6

fYear

1997

fDate

6/1/1997 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

18

Lastpage

24

Abstract

The main objective of the TOPEX/Poseidon Spacecraft is to monitor the world´s oceans for scientific study of weather and climate prediction, coastal storm warning and maritime safety. The operational conditions of this satellite imposed challenging requirements for the on-board Electrical Power System (EPS), Going through various phases of its development and on-orbit performance verifications, there were certain events and/or circumstances we would have liked to avoid. Some circumstances were avoided with preventative measures, other potentially detrimental events were not. Thus, a number of valuable lessons were learned which are presented in this paper

Keywords

oceanographic techniques; photovoltaic power systems; solar cell arrays; solar power satellites; space vehicle power plants; TOPEX/Poseidon; climate prediction; coastal storm warning; maritime safety; onboard computer; onboard electrical power system; onorbit performance verification; power cycling; solar array; weather; world´s oceans; Batteries; Extraterrestrial measurements; Oceans; Power systems; Propulsion; Regulators; Satellites; Sea measurements; Space vehicles; Sun;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0885-8985

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/62.587053

Filename

587053