Large capacity NiH2 battery cells for advanced, high-power spacecraft applications

With space based communications requiring large amounts of power and high reliability, the nickel-hydrogen battery with its long cycle life is a very desirable power supply. To meet the demands of the aerospace community, Eagle-Picher has continued to improve on the battery´s specific energy while producing a lower cost unit. At Eagle-Picher´s commercial aerospace battery plant in Joplin, Missouri, a 120 ampere-hour nickel-hydrogen battery cell is in production. This cell combines a number of design improvements which result in a lower unit cost and a higher specific energy without sacrificing the battery system´s high reliability. In achieving a twenty-five percent cost reduction in the cell, a number of issues have been considered. To maintain the nickel-hydrogen reliability heritage, all changes have been tested, evaluated and proven to have no degrading effects. The success of this program in producing a large diameter nickel-hydrogen cell lends the availability of the technology to be applied to larger and more powerful cells. This paper details the development and production of the 4.5 inch (155 mm) diameter nickel-hydrogen cell technology and discusses the suitability of this design being applied to larger cells (e.g., up to 300 ampere-hours in this common diameter)