A High Performance, Very Low Cost Power System for Microspacecraft
- Paper number
IAC-08.C3.1.10
- Author
Mr. Craig Clark, Clyde Space, United Kingdom
- Year
2008
- Abstract
Parallels are being made between the success of the Small Satellite industry and the growing capability of microspacecraft. Currently, microspacecraft are being used as teaching tools by many Universities and organisations all over the world, but commercial and scientific applications are now becoming a reality on these very small satellite platforms. The most common microspacecraft platform is the ‘CubeSat’ and this standard is fast becoming the most launch spacecraft platform in history. For most companies and organizations planning their own CubeSat mission, the prospect of producing a reliable, yet affordable power system for their mission is a non-trivial problem. Some non-traditional spacecraft manufacturers, such as Universities, are finding out the importance of a well designed power system the hard-way. The most common cause of failure on CubeSats to date has been the power system. The most obvious solution to removing concern over the reliability performance of a power system is to buy one from a recognized source. However, for most CubeSat missions the cost of doing so is prohibitive. For this reason, we have used our extensive small satellite power system design experience to develop a microspacecraft power system that is highly efficient both electrically and physically. In addition, it is available off-the-shelf on a 1 week delivery and can be purchased from the internet with a credit card for less than the price of a lab power supply. In order to achieve this we have had to innovate in the design, manufacture and sales techniques. The power system uses an innovative approach to interfacing to the spacecraft solar arrays, providing a maximum power point tracking system that can interface to up to six solar arrays. It also incorporates an integrated Lithium Polymer battery (based on a commercial cell) that can be scaled to meet the energy storage requirements of the mission. The power system is based on CubeSat requirements, uses the PC/104 format and weighs just 75g. The system is also modular and scalable to accommodate creeping power budgets. This paper will discuss the design and performance of the system and also the approaches that we are taking to allow CubeSat developers to specify and buy their system online.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-08.C3.1.10.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.