Final Viking NiCd battery conditioning

Conference · Mon Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1983 · Proc., Intersoc. Energy Convers. Eng. Conf.; (United States)

OSTI ID:5485829

Britting, A

The Viking Lander Monitor Mission (VLMM) is well beyond its planned 90-day landed Mars mission. It has been an established NASA goal to maintain an American presence on Mars for as long as possible. With healthy subsystems, the mission could conceivably last until December 5, 1994. At that time the radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) power source output power would be marginal for support of the system electrical loads and for battery maintenance. The antenna pointing coefficients will also expire at that time, resulting in telecommunication system shutdown. Recently three of the four, 8 ampere-hour (AH) nickel-cadmium (NiCd) batteries onboard Viking Lander 1 (VL-1) have indicated signs of significant loss of energy storage capacity. An intensive program of deep-discharge battery reconditioning was begun in January 1982 in an attempt to return the batteries to levels of capacity approaching early mission values.

• Research Organization: Martin Marietta Aerospace, Denver, Colorado
• OSTI ID: 5485829
• Report Number(s): CONF-830812-
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Proc., Intersoc. Energy Convers. Eng. Conf.; (United States) Journal Volume: 4
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

25 ENERGY STORAGE
250902* -- Energy Storage-- Batteries-- Performance & Testing
250904 -- Energy Storage-- Batteries-- Other Applications
CAPACITY
COMMUNICATIONS
DATA TRANSMISSION
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
ELECTRIC BATTERIES
ELECTRIC DISCHARGES
ELECTROCHEMICAL CELLS
ENERGY STORAGE
MARS PLANET
METAL-METAL OXIDE BATTERIES
NASA
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NICKEL-CADMIUM BATTERIES
PERFORMANCE
PLANETS
RADIOISOTOPE GENERATORS
SERVICE LIFE
SPACE VEHICLES
STORAGE
TELEMETRY
THERMOELECTRIC GENERATORS
US ORGANIZATIONS
VEHICLES
VIKING SPACE PROBES