| Popis: |
Rechargeable batteries are ideal for numerous applications: electronics, electric vehicles, stationary energy storage, and aerospace systems. Over the past several decades, our research groups and collaborators have examined aspects of advanced (nano)materials, including Si alloys for Li-ion batteries (LIBs) for aerospace power applications. These applications present unique challenges such as temperature fluctuations, rapid gravitational fluctuations, high-energy particles and radiation environments, atomic oxygen, hard-ultraviolet light, thermal management and the necessity or weight- and space savings. This chapter covers several topics that pertain to practical considerations for integrated power devices (and systems) and microsatellites (i.e., CubeSats); we address their applicability to future space exploration. Integrated power technologies that involve energy storage and energy conversion address several concerns about limitations imposed upon space flight hardware and systems related to power, space, and mass limitations. An integrated power device was successfully demonstrated in low-Earth orbit on the Starshine 3 microsatellite in late 2001/early 2002. We review efforts by numerous other researchers to develop batteries integrated with solar cells and other technologies. We outline the four basic types of integrated power devices (or systems), address potential applications and discuss advantages, challenges, and practical considerations. We discuss a variety of battery technologies (with a focus on LIBs) for CubeSats. Commercial LIBs have been successfully demonstrated for numerous exploration missions over the past 20 years, including a remarkable successful combined lander/CubeSat mission (insight/MarCO) to Mars during the past several years. It is important to note that while a variety of battery technologies could be employed, Li-ion batteries with Si-containing anodes may be the optical choice for certain missions. |
