The Bruno B. Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) battery design and performance

Author

Jallice, Doris E. ; Ahmad, Anisa J. ; Rao, Gopalakrishna M.

Author_Institution

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA

Volume

1

fYear

1996

fDate

11-16 Aug 1996

Firstpage

421

Abstract

The Bruno B. Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), a NASA astronomy satellite, was launched on December 30, 1995. The RXTE power system is a direct energy transfer system with two super nickel cadmium batteries and an eight segment silicon solar array connected directly to the main bus. The RXTE power system can provide up to 800 watts of load power. Provisions are incorporated into the power system electronics design for partially isolating any one battery in flight for individual battery charging or for fully isolating any one battery in flight for battery reconditioning. This paper describes the RXTE cell and battery ground test performance, and in-orbit battery operations and performance

Keywords

aerospace testing; cadmium; nickel; photovoltaic power systems; secondary cells; solar cell arrays; solar cells; space vehicle power plants; Bruno B. Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer; NASA astronomy satellite; Ni-Cd; RXTE satellite power system; Si; battery charging; battery design; battery performance; battery reconditioning; direct energy transfer system; ground test performance; in-orbit battery operations; in-orbit performance; main bus; secondary batteries; solar array; space power; Astronomy; Batteries; Cadmium; Energy exchange; NASA; Nickel; Power systems; Satellites; Silicon; Timing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, 1996. IECEC 96., Proceedings of the 31st Intersociety

Conference_Location

Washington, DC

ISSN

1089-3547

Print_ISBN

0-7803-3547-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IECEC.1996.552919

Filename

552919