TOPEX/Poseidon electrical power system -- Lessons learned

Conference · Tue Dec 31 00:00:00 EST 1996

OSTI ID:435530

Chetty, P R.K.; Richardson, R ^[1]; Sherwood, R ^[2]

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1. Orbital Sciences Corp., Germantown, MD (United States)
2. California Inst. of Tech., Pasadena, CA (United States). Jet Propulsion Lab.

The main objective of the TOPEX/Poseidon Spacecraft is to monitor the world`s oceans for scientific study of weather and climate prediction, coastal storm warning and maritime safety. The operational conditions of this satellite imposed challenging requirements for the on-board Electrical Power System (EPS). Going through various phases of its development and on-orbit performance verifications, there were certain events and/or circumstances the authors would have liked to avoid. Some circumstances were avoided with preventative measures, other potentially detrimental events were not. Thus, a number of very valuable lessons were learned which are presented in this paper.

• OSTI ID: 435530
• Report Number(s): CONF-960805-; TRN: IM9710%%188
• Resource Relation: Conference: 31. intersociety energy conversion engineering conference, Washington, DC (United States), 9-14 Aug 1996; Other Information: PBD: 1996; Related Information: Is Part Of Proceedings of the 31. intersociety energy conversion engineering conference. Volume 1: Aerospace power systems, aerospace technologies; Chetty, P.R.K.; Jackson, W.D.; Dicks, E.B. [eds.]; PB: 681 p.
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
14 SOLAR ENERGY
SATELLITES
POWER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS
PHOTOVOLTAIC POWER SUPPLIES
SPACECRAFT POWER SUPPLIES
SOLAR CELL ARRAYS
DESIGN
PERFORMANCE
ELECTRIC BATTERIES