Commercialization of flywheel energy storage technology on the international space station

An important mission of the international space station (ISS) is to provide a platform for engineering research and development of commercial technology in low Earth orbit (LEO). Flywheel energy storage technology is an ideal candidate for this mission because, in addition to benefiting the commercial and military satellite industries, it offers significant operating cost savings to the ISS. This work describes a proposed flight experiment using the ISS expedite the processing of experiments to space station (EXPRESS) Pallet as a test platform to demonstrate the feasibility of operating high speed, composite flywheels in LEO for energy storage applications. The proposed ISS payload, the flywheel express pallet experiment (FEPE), will build upon the legacy of an earlier technology development effort for ISS, the flywheel energy storage system (FESS) program. FESS was specifically designed to replace the nickel hydrogen (NiH₂) battery orbital replacement units in the ISS electric power system. In contrast, FEPE will incorporate two counter-rotating flywheels, on the ISS express pallet, exchanging energy with each other. The ISS will provide the small amount of power needed to make up for losses. From a technology perspective, FEPE is being proposed to validate flywheel systems in the combined LEO environment, which cannot be fully simulated in a ground facility. FEPE is also a necessary step in the commercialization of flywheel technology for satellites.