Power Management Considering Attitude Control and Battery Lifetime for Spacecraft with VSCMGs

Abstract

This study proposes a power management method for a spacecraft with Variable Speed Control Moment Gyro/Integrated Power and Attitude Control System (VSCMG/IPACS) and Lithium-ion battery, considering the lifetime of the battery. The proposed method achieves the attitude control of the spacecraft through the steering law of the VSCMGs, while the IPACS and battery realize the required power, suppressing the degradation mode of the battery. In the proposed power management method, the total required power is distributed into two references, which should be realized by the battery and the IPACS. In case the thresholds of the state of charge (SOC) or C-rate of the battery are exceeded, the IPACS assists the power output and charging of the battery while considering the saturation of the wheel speed of the IPACS.