SPACECRAFT POWER

SYSTEMS
.
Kimia Zargarzadah
Mohammad Sheikhi

Winter 99
 BASE ON:

Solar dynamic  Duration of mission:

Primary/Secondary Batteries Few years: solar & RTGs
Flywheel Storage Shorter: fuel cells
fuel cell Few days: batteries
Radioisotope, Thermoelectric converter  Type of mission:
Nuclear Determine capacity, mass and designs
Electrodynamics Tethers
Propulsion-charged tether
 Long heritage, high reliability power source
 High specific power, low specific cost
 Elevated temperature reduce cell performance
 Radiation reduces performance and lifetime SOLAR CELL:
 Most orbits will require energy storage systems to
accommodate eclipses
Physics:
 temperature effects

Radiation effects
 Fuel Cell Characteristics:
• Output voltage per cell 0.8 volts in practice
• Consumes hydrogen and oxygen, produces water as byproduct (1 Pint/kW h)
• High specific power (275 W/kg)
• Shuttle fuel cells produce 16 kW peak
• Reaction is reversible so regenerative fuel cells are possible(not good enough for
spacecraft’s use)
• Advantages:
They operate silently
with no moving parts they provide continuous power as long as
the chemical ingredients are fed into the cell.
As the only reaction product is water, there is no pollution.
as they convert chemical energy directly into electricity, fuel cells are not subject to
the thermodynamic laws that limit the efficiencies of thermal power
plants. The efficiency of a fuel cell in converting the energy contained
in the fuel into electricity is typically in the range 40–60%.
• Disadvantages:
high initial capital cost.
The storage of hydrogen gas has technological challenges.
As individual fuel cells produce relatively small voltages between the anode and
cathode, they are often connected in series to obtain higher voltages. And to provide more
output current they can be connected in
parallel.
 (TYPES)

ALKALINE FUEL CELL APOLLO

 Radioisotope power systems, or RPS, provide
electricity and heat that can enable spacecraft to
undertake scientific missions to environments beyond
the capabilities of solar power, chemical batteries and
fuel cells.

 RPS are sometimes referred to as a type of "nuclear

battery." While some spacecraft, like Cassini, do run
their systems directly off of their RPS, others like the
Mars Science Laboratory rover can use the RPS to
charge batteries and run their systems and
instruments off of stored battery power. In either case,
the RPS is attached directly to a spacecraft, much like
a power cord being plugged in.
RTGs: (efficiency=3-7%)
 A Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator, or RTG provides power for
spacecraft by converting heat generated by the natural radioactive decay of its
fuel source, plutonium dioxide, into electricity using devices called
thermocouples. RTGs have no moving parts.
~ RADIOISOTOPE THERMOELECTRIC
 RTGs are usually the most desirable power source for unmaintained situations GENERATORS (RTG)
that need a few hundred watts (or less) of power for durations too long for fuel
cells, batteries, or generators to provide economically, and in places where
solar cells are not practical. Safe use of RTGs requires containment of the
radioisotopes long after the productive life of the unit. The expense of RTGs
tend to limit their use to niche applications in rare or special situation.

 Stirling Converters are a high efficiency (about 23%) engine which converts
heat into electricity.) more efficient than the thermoelectric and solar powered
systems(
 Inside a Stirling converter, a moving piston is driven by the heat of a fuel
source. The piston would move a magnet back and forth through a coil of wire
to generate electrical current in the wire. To prevent physical wear, the piston is
suspended in a helium gas bearing, meaning it does not actually touch the
inside of the mechanism.
 ~ GENERAL PURPOSE HEAT SOURCE
MODULE (GPHS)

The General Purpose Heat Source module, or GPHS, is the essential building
block for the radioisotope generators used by NASA. These modules contain
and protect the plutonium-238 (or Pu-238) fuel that gives off heat for
producing electricity. The fuel is fabricated into ceramic pellets of plutonium-
238 dioxide (238PuO2) and encapsulated in a protective casing of iridium,
forming a fueled clad. Fueled clads are encased within nested layers of
carbon-based material and placed within an aeroshell housing to comprise
the complete GPHS module.

Each GPHS is a block about four by four by two inches in size, weighing
approximately 3.5 pounds (1.5 kilograms). They are nominally designed to
produce thermal power at 250 watts at the beginning of a mission, and can be
used individually or stacked together.
Advantages:
Do not require sunlight to operate
Long lasting and relatively insensitive to the chilling cold of space and
virtually invulnerable to high radiation fields.
RTGs provide longer mission lifetimes than solar power systems. –
Supplied with RTGs, the Viking landers operated on Mars for four and six
years, respectively. – By comparison, the 1997 Mars Pathfinder spacecraft,
which used only solar and battery power, operated only three months.
They are lightweight and compact. In the kilowatt range, RTGs provide
more power for less mass (when compared to solar arrays and batteries).
No moving parts or fluids, conventional RTGs highly reliable.
RTGs are safe and flight-proven. They are designed to withstand any launch
and re-entry accidents.
RTGs are maintenance free..
Disadvantages:
The nuclear decay process cannot be turned on and off. An RTG is active
from the moment when the radioisotopes are inserted into the assembly,
and the power output decreases exponentially with time.
An RTG must be cooled and shielded constantly.
The conversion efficiency is normally only 5 %.
Radioisotopes, and hence the RTGs themselves, are expensive
 The new thermoelectric technology in development is based
upon materials called skutterudites. They are a part of a family
of compounds with many heavy atoms and complex structures.
Skutterudites conduct electricity like a metal but insulate
against heat the way glass does. At the same time they can
generate sizable electrical voltages, just what engineers need
~Skutterudites: a cobalt
to convert heat into electricity.
arsenide mineral containing
 If these materials were put in the same kind of generator that's variable amounts of nickel
on the Curiosity rover, with some small tweaks, the generator and iron substituting for
could be up to 25% more efficient. After 17 years a spacecraft cobalt with the ideal formula
could have 50% more power than with the current design. That CoAs3
means a spacecraft with an eMMRTG could fly longer and do
more science during its lifetime.
 When the new satellite or space probe is launched, the
spinning tether system captures it and essentially "flings" it
farther from Earth. Using a method such as this would greatly
reduce the altitude to which an object would have to be
launched initially. This, in turn, would cut down on the needed
power of the rocket used to launch it, which, of course, would TETHERS:
reduce the cost of the launch. Researchers believe that satellites
could be placed in a geosynchronous orbit for as little as one-
half of the current launch cost.

 Of course, nothing good is ever free, and that includes placing

satellites into better orbits. The system is called momentum
exchange; exchanges momentum from the orbiting tether to the
boosted satellite or probe. That means that the tether loses
momentum, and falls closer to the Earth as the other object
moves further from it. Without a way to reboost the tether
satellite, it could only perform the momentum exchange
technique a very limited number of times before dropping into
Earth's atmosphere. That's where another use of space tethers For more details:
comes in. https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/f
iles/files/Hoyt_2012_PhI_NanoTHOR
.pdf
 Another technology NASA researchers are developing is the
Electrodynamic Tether (EDT). As the long wire of an EDT
passes through Earth's magnetic field, it sets up a voltage
along the tether. This voltage makes electrons flow down the
tether, like water flowing down a pipe. If the tether has the
right systems to allow it to collect and emit electrons, then an
electrical current (the flow of electrons) will move through
the tether. Any time an electrical current flows in a magnetic
field, there is a lorentz Force.
 Current naturally flowing through the tether can be used by
spacecraft for power. But again, we don't get something for
nothing. The force created by that flowing current slows the
spacecraft down and takes energy out of its orbit. Eventually,
the object would re-enter Earth's atmosphere, where, without
heat shielding, it would burn up. Such a system could be
used to prevent space junk from accumulating in orbit. When
a satellite reached the end of its useful life span, it could
deploy a tether that would slow it down until it disintegrated
in the atmosphere, clearing the way for new satellites to be
placed in that orbit.
 If we want to boost satellites up to higher orbits, we have to
force the current to flow through the tether in the direction
opposite the way it wants to go. To do this, we need energy,
which can be collected from the Sun using solar panels. When a
tether forces current in the direction opposite from the direction
it wants to go, it's like pumping water up a pipe. The force on the
tether from "pumping" current adds energy to the orbit of the
tether and boosts it into a higher orbit. In fact, some NASA
researchers believe that by using a tether like this, the orbit of
the International Space Station could be continuously
reboosted, countering the effect of atmospheric drag without
requiring any additional propellant.
 The same electrodynamic tether technology would be used to
reboost the momentum-exchange tether after each use. It would
use energy collected from solar panels to drive electrical
current through the tether in the right direction to add energy to
its orbit and reboost it for another use. In fact, the type of tether
they are developing is called a Momentum-
Exchange/Electrodynamic Reboost tether.
(POWER SOURCE
APPLICABILITY)
 THANK YOU.
References:
rps.nasa.gov
energy.gov
ceb.cam.ac.uk
spacecenter.org
bbc.com