ABSL Space Products - World Leaders in Lithium-ion Batteries for Space Applications
With 40 years of heritage in the Space Industry ABSL Space Products has pioneered the use of Lithium-ion Space Battery technology. ABSL's Li-ion battery experience dates back to the 1970's when ABSL patented the Li-ion cathode technology. This technology was then licensed to Sony who exploited it during the portable electronics boom during the 1990's. The cathode technology was then sub-licensed to other leading cell manufacturers to meet consumer demand.
In 1998 ABSL qualified the 18650HC cell for use in space applications and through extensive testing, ensured the verification of the small cell approach and the use of commercial Li-ion cells in space batteries. In addition, the initiation of an extensive lifetest program from the late 1990's to date has given ABSL an understanding of the long-term cell performance.
The 18650HC cell constantly delivers a battery level energy density (including all structure, connectors, etc) of 110Wh/kg across a range of battery sizes from less than 1kg to over 40kg. Our new high-energy cells can boost this to over 155Wh/kg. It is foreseen that the ABSL 18650HC will remain the high energy density cell of choice for long missions for years to come, with newer cells adopted as their maturity develops.
In the year 1999 the first ABSL Li-ion battery was launched on board the STRV-1c spacecraft. In the same year ABSL won a contract to supply the first Li-ion battery for a NASA program - ST5. A year later ABSL flew the first Li-ion battery on an ESA spacecraft - PROBA. This spacecraft is still in LEO operation today and is the longest serving spacecraft carrying Li-ion. PROBA reached the five-year milestone on October 22nd 2006.
ABSL has recently qualified a high power - ABSL 18650HR - cell and a primary - ABSL 33111PR - cell which have further expanded ABSL's business into the launch vehicle and interplanetary lander markets.
From these early successes ABSL is now recognised as the world leader in the supply of Lithium-ion space batteries and with facilities now in both the UK and the US, ABSL is able to meet customer requirements from around the world.