An innovative new battery to power spacecraft has been designed and built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) for Dutch company, Fokker.
Designed to comply with manned space flight missions, the battery has a number of design features. The cells are sealed type nickel cadmium batteries, but unlike normal space qualified cells have a safety vent to release pressure should it become excessive due to undesirable charge or discharge conditions. There are 22 Sanyo KR-4400D cells in series with diode by-pass for cell reversal protection, equating to a 4.4Ah battery at a nominal 28V.
The new battery was commissioned by Fokker for their 130 kg microsatellite, SLOSHSAT, which will perform fluid dynamics experiments in space. SLOSHSAT will be launched as a payload in the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle and, once in space, will be ejected from the Hitch Hiker pallet in order to perform free flying experiments for a duration of approximately fourteen days.
SSTL has an impressive commercial cell qualification programme which has been developed over more than 15 years of commercial cell batteries in space.
