Satellite Subsystems » Electrical » Power Management

The satellite requires batteries to provide power to the satellite while it is in eclipse, travelling behind the Earth. Batteries able to supply enough power to the satellite, which can be re-charged in the non-eclipse time, must be chosen.

The satellite's main power source, the solar panels, do not provide a consistent amount of power. Instead, it depends upon how much light is falling on the panel and how many cells are in each string of cells. The batteries also require a much larger voltage, typically 1.9 times their nominal voltage, to charge. This means that the power system must regulate solar panel voltages to a lower value, suitable for the satellite's subsystems. Regulators able to provide the required amount of power and handle the input voltage must be chosen. The satellites subsystems in total can require more power than is directly available from the solar cells or batteries. This requires that the power system has a method of controlling which subsystems are powered.

To manage battery charging, power regulation and power distribution, the power subsystem requires some control logic. This could be implemented using an FPGA- or microprocessor-based system.

	Author: Chris Walsh © The Author, the BLUEsat project or UNSW. All rights reserved. Last Modified: May 18 2006 08:44:34.