Sodium sulfur battery cell space flight experiment

Conference · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:187010

Garner, J C; Baker, W E; Braun, W; Kim, J ^[1]

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1. Naval Research Lab., Washington, DC (United States). Naval Center for Space Technology

A Sodium Sulfur (NaS) battery cell for space applications has been in development, with Air Force sponsorship, since the early 1980`s. At 100 Wh/kg, NaS batteries have twice the energy density of advanced nickel hydrogen (NiH{sub 2}) battery designs. Yet, the NaS battery cell is radically different from either nickel cadmium (NiCd) or NiH{sub 2} battery cells in two ways. First, NaS cells have a solid ceramic versus a liquid aqueous electrolyte. Second, NaS operates at 350 C versus 20 C for NiH{sub 2} and NiCd. How this unique battery cell operates in the zero-g environment of space is the purpose of the flight experiment described herein. The US Air Force Phillips Lab has tasked the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) to design, fabricate and integrate a NaS battery cell flight experiment. The experiment will fly with the Wake Shield Facility Cross Bay Carrier on a NASA Space Shuttle launch in November 1996. The experiment will heat-up, cool-down and operate four series connected NaS cells through three different charge/discharge profiles. After the experiment is complete, the NaS battery cells will be returned to the PL for destructive physical analysis. This paper will describe the NRL experiment implementation and design.

• OSTI ID: 187010
• Report Number(s): CONF-950729--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

25 ENERGY STORAGE
FLIGHT TESTING
NICKEL-HYDROGEN BATTERIES
PERFORMANCE TESTING
SODIUM-SULFUR BATTERIES
SOLID ELECTROLYTES
SPACECRAFT POWER SUPPLIES
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0400-1000 K
USES
WEIGHTLESSNESS