The Advanced Composition Explorer power subsystem
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, under contract with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, has designed and launched the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) spacecraft. ACE is a scientific observatory housing ten instruments, and is located in a halo orbit about the L1 Sun-Earth libration point. ACE is providing real-time solar wind monitoring and data on elemental and isotopic matter of solar and galactic origin. The ACE Electrical Power Subsystem (EPS) is a fault tolerant, solar powered, shunt regulated, direct energy transfer architecture based on the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) EPS. The differences are that MSX used oriented solar arrays with a nickel hydrogen-battery defined bus, while ACE uses fixed solar panels with a regulated bus decoupled from its nickel cadmium (NiCd) battery. Also, magnetometer booms are mounted on two of the four ACE solar panels. The required accuracy of the magnetometers impose severe requirements on the magnetic fields induced by the solar array. Other noteworthy features include a solar cell degradation experiment, in-flight battery reconditioning, a battery requalified to a high vibrational environment, and an adjustable bus voltage setpoint. The four solar panels consist of aluminum honeycomb substrates covered with 15.1% efficient silicon cells. The cells are strung using silver interconnects and are back-wired to reduce magnetic emissions below 0.1nT. Pyrotechnic actuated, spring loaded hinges deploy the panels after spacecraft separation from the Delta II launch vehicle. Solar cell experiments on two of the panels track cell performance degradation at L1, and also distinguish any hydrazine impingement degradation which may be caused by the thrusters. Each solar panel uses a digital shunt box, containing blocking diodes and MOSFETs, for short-circuit control of its 5 solar strings. A power box contains redundant analog MOSFET shunts, the 90% efficient boost regulator, and redundant battery chargers which provide closed-loop voltage and current limiting. The booster can also be configured in flight to cause a regulated 0.6A discharge to provide partial battery reconditioning. The battery uses 18 spare 12Ah NiCd cells from the retired constellation of Navy navigation satellites. The battery unintentionally received twice the intended amplitude during vibration testing, but a packaging review and cell requalification proved the battery capable of safely operating in the more rugged environment. The control box contains redundant hybrid switching converters, shunt regulation electronics, and a circuit to switch sides in response to bus under or over-voltage. The control box also contains redundant 80C85RH-based processors which digitize all EPS telemetry and decode digital commands communicated over cross-strapped serial links with the redundant spacecraft command and data handling systems.
- Research Organization:
- Johns Hopkins Univ., Laurel, MD (US)
- OSTI ID:
- 20000313
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 33rd Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, Colorado Springs, CO (US), 08/02/1998--08/06/1998; Other Information: 1 CD-ROM. Operating system required: Windows 3.x; Windows95/NT; Macintosh; UNIX. All systems need 2X CD-ROM drive., PBD: 1998; Related Information: In: Proceedings of the 33. intersociety energy conversion engineering conference, by Anghaie, S. [ed.], [2800] pages.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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