Design and performance of Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Super Ni-Cd batteries

Author

Ahmad, Anisa J. ; Rao, Gopalakrishna M. ; Jallice, Doris E. ; Moran, Vickie E.

Author_Institution

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA

fYear

1999

fDate

1999

Firstpage

85

Lastpage

90

Abstract

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) is a joint mission between NASA and the National Space Development Agency (NASDA) of Japan. The observatory is designed to monitor and study tropical rainfall and the associated release of energy that helps to power the global atmospheric circulation shaping both weather and climate around the globe. The spacecraft was launched from Japan on November 27, 1997 via the NASDA H-II launch vehicle. The TRMM power subsystem is a peak power tracking system that can support the maximum TRMM load of 815 watts at the end of its three year life. The power subsystem consists of two 50 Ampere hour Super Ni-Cd batteries, gallium arsenide solar array and the power system electronics. This paper describes the TRMM power subsystem, battery design, cell and battery ground test performance, and in-orbit battery operations and performance

Keywords

artificial satellites; cadmium; nickel; secondary cells; solar cell arrays; space vehicle power plants; testing; 815 W; Japan; NASA; NASDA H-II launch vehicle; National Space Development Agency; Ni-Cd; Super Ni-Cd batteries; Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission; battery design; battery ground test performance; climate; energy release; gallium arsenide solar array; global atmospheric circulation; in-orbit battery operations; in-orbit battery performance; peak power tracking system; power system electronics; weather; Atmospheric measurements; Batteries; Gallium arsenide; Monitoring; NASA; Observatories; Power systems; Space missions; Space vehicles; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Battery Conference on Applications and Advances, 1999. The Fourteenth Annual

Conference_Location

Long Beach, CA

ISSN

1089-8182

Print_ISBN

0-7803-4967-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/BCAA.1999.795971

Filename

795971