Host: The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
Name : [in Japanese]
Date : September 13, 2020 - September 16, 2020
The probable performance distribution in an orbit environment of a power supply of micro/nanosatellites was evaluated by electrochemical measurements using hundreds of commercial cylindrical lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). According to the distribution map of the initial characteristics, there were 3% distribution in the discharge capacity and 11% in the internal resistance. Despite careful selection of LIB cells having same initial characteristics from the above-mentioned distribution map, the large differences in discharge capacity were found at relatively high current density with low temperature of 0°C, where the batteries installed in the CubeSats experiences. Although the difference in low-temperature performance of LIB cells fairly depended on their internal resistance, causeless factors affecting the exothermic behavior in the cooled batteries at its early stage of discharging, which leads higher or lower discharge capability, were observed. Such characteristic behavior may cause deterioration of the performance of the power supply module, overcharge/over-discharge failures, and cause safety hazard of the satellites, especially CubeSats.
