Power-Sharing with Electric Propulsion and Secondary Batteries

Abstract

An in-house study has revealed that most AF synchronous equatorial satellites have an appreciable fraction of power on the spacecraft which is not being used continuously. The study reveals that this excess power may be used to operate electric thrusters for stationkeeping functions, on an appropriate duty cycle. By selecting the proper secondary battery charge rate, commensurate with battery capacity and reliability, the electric thruster performance may be optimized to maximize satellite payload capabilities. Percent payload improvement from a few percent to 25% when compared to a non-power-sharing ion engine, and from 5 to 75% compared to a power-sharing colloid engine may be realized.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1971
Accession Number
AD0740571

Entities

People

  • Jack W. Geis

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Artificial Satellites
  • Computer Programs
  • Earth Orbits
  • Electric Power
  • Electric Propulsion
  • Energy
  • Energy Storage
  • Engines
  • Ion Engines
  • Propulsion Systems
  • Reliability
  • Solar Cells
  • Solar Panels
  • Spacecraft
  • Storage Batteries
  • Thrusters

Readers

  • Aerospace Propulsion Engineering.
  • Battery Technology and Engineering
  • Logistics and Supply Chain Management.

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster
  • Space - Satellites