Preliminary Design of the Electrical Power Subsystem for the European Student Moon Orbiter Mission
- Paper number
IAC-07-B4.6.13
- Author
Mr. Steve Ulrich, Universite de Sherbrooke, Canada
- Coauthor
Mr. Jean-Francois Veilleux, Universite de Sherbrooke, Canada
- Coauthor
Mr. François Landry Corbin, Universite de Sherbrooke, Canada
- Year
2007
- Abstract
The European Student Moon Orbiter (ESMO) mission is part of the Student Space Exploration and Technology Initiative (SSETI) program, which is under the supervision of the European Space Agency (ESA). The general objective of ESMO is to send a mini satellite of 200 kg in orbit around the moon in order to achieve four specific objectives:
Education: prepare students for their future career in space programs by providing them valuable hands-on experience on a mini satellite project.
Outreach: acquire images of the Moon and transmit them back to Earth for public and education outreach purposes.
Science: perform new scientific measurements relevant to lunar science and to the future human exploration of the Moon, in complement with past, present and future lunar missions.
Engineering: provide flight demonstration of innovative space technologies developed under university research activities.
Canada, represented by l’Université de Sherbrooke, is involved in the ESMO mission since June 2005. For this unique mission, Canada plays a major role by designing and building the Electrical Power Subsystem (EPS). The EPS is responsible for electrical power generation, energy storage for peak-power demands and eclipse periods as well as power regulation and control to prevent overcharging and undesired spacecraft heating.
In this paper, the preliminary design of the EPS conducted by the Canadian team for this challenging mini satellite mission is presented. First, background details on the ESMO mission are provided. Then, the mission and the specific environment characteristics that impact the design of the EPS are explained. Thereafter, the preliminary design is presented for each element of the EPS, such as: the 28.3% GaAs Ultra Triple Junction (UTJ) solar cells, the solar array interface, the Maximum Power Peak Tracker (MPPT), the power bus interface, the battery charge/discharge unit, the Li-Ion batteries (selected for its high depth-of-discharge, which is a critical factor for a mission to the Moon, where many charge-discharge cycles are involved), the power regulation unit (PRU), the power distribution unit (PDU), and the EPS self power supply. Finally, the preliminary mass budget that shows that the proposed EPS respects the stringent mass requirement is presented.
While allowing the ESMO mini satellite to operate in Earth GTO, in transfer orbit and in lunar orbit, the proposed EPS will greatly contribute to the success of this ambitious and challenging satellite mission to the Moon.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-07-B4.6.13.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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