A Novel In-Flight Space Battery Health Assessment System

ESA-ESTEC, Keplerlaan 1, 2200 AG Noordwijk, NL

Email: brandon.buergler@esa.int
Email: francois.bausier@esa.int

Abstract

The assessment of an in-flight battery health status is of great interest. However, it is very difficult to perform with sufficient accuracy because the battery is constantly operated and no full discharge during a space mission can be done. Currently, a method for performing a health assessment is via the correlation of battery capacity with internal resistance, which can be more easily measured. Another method is to fit the on board battery voltage using the telemetry of current and temperature as inputs by advanced modelling techniques and to derive the ageing parameters of the battery. This is done by optimising the parameters so that the fitted voltage curve is as close as possible to the actual measured voltage telemetry curve. Then an assessment of the battery capacity and energy can be done by simulating a battery discharge at the desired conditions with the required voltage limits. However, these two methods often require extensive battery life tests on ground to estimate the ageing behaviour for a particular mission.

In this paper a novel health assessment system is proposed by which a more straight forward and accurate assessment of the battery health in terms of capacity and energy can be performed. The proposed system consists to use one or some battery string(s), which can be safely disconnected via the PCDU (Power Conditioning and Distribution Unit) from the battery for a dedicated capacity measurement while the main part of the battery continues to operate normally. In this paper, the viability of the proposed system is demonstrated and the implications on the battery and the power system are discussed.