International space station nickel-hydrogen battery on-orbit performance

Author

Dalton, Penni ; Cohen, Fred

Author_Institution

NASA Glenn Res. Center, Cleveland, OH, USA

fYear

2004

fDate

29-31 July 2004

Firstpage

106

Lastpage

113

Abstract

International space station (ISS) electric power system (EPS) utilizes nickel-hydrogen (Ni-H₂) batteries as part of its power system to store electrical energy. The batteries are charged during insolation and discharged during eclipse. The batteries are designed to operate at a 35% depth of discharge (DOD) maximum during normal operation. Thirty-eight individual pressure vessel (IPV) Ni-H₂ battery cells are series-connected and packaged in an orbital replacement unit (ORU). Two ORUs are series-connected utilizing a total of 76 cells, to form one battery. The ISS is the first application for low earth orbit (LEO) cycling of this quantity of series-connected cells. The P6 (port) integrated equipment assembly (IEA) containing the initial ISS high-power components was successfully launched on November 30, 2000. The IEA contains 12 battery subassembly ORUs (6 batteries) that provide station power during eclipse periods. This work discusses the battery performance data after eighteen months of cycling.

Keywords

Earth orbit; eclipses; energy storage; hydrogen compounds; nickel compounds; pressure vessels; secondary cells; space vehicle power plants; Ni-H₂; battery performance; battery subassembly; eclipse period; electric power system; electrical energy storage; high-power components; international space station; low earth orbit cycling; nickel-hydrogen battery; on-orbit performance; orbital replacement unit; port integrated equipment assembly; pressure vessel; series-connected cells; Assembly systems; Batteries; International Space Station; Low earth orbit satellites; Manufacturing; NASA; Power system modeling; Testing; Thermal management; US Department of Defense;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, 2002. IECEC '02. 2002 37th Intersociety

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7296-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IECEC.2002.1391988

Filename

1391988