Longest Serving Li-ion Space Battery Reaches Five-Year Milestone
22nd October 2006
The ESA PROBA spacecraft reaches the milestone of five years in successful operation in low Earth orbit. PROBA is powered by an ABSL Li-ion battery which is the longest serving in the industry.
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) PROBA satellite passed its five-year operational milestone on October 22nd. PROBA (PRoject for On Board Autonomy) performs autonomous guidance, navigation, control, onboard scheduling and payload resources management. Amongst the new technologies incorporated into the satellite is a Lithium-ion battery supplied by ABSL Space Products (ABSL). The battery was originally designed for a one-year mission and continues to power the satellite during each eclipse. Over the past five years the battery has experienced over 27,000 cycles.
The PROBA battery’s continuing performance beyond its original design life is testament to the stability of the ABSL small cell approach. ESA battery expert Max Schautz said “The ABSL supplied Lithium-ion battery aboard PROBA has performed exceptionally. The data generated from this mission has given ESA projects the confidence to select ABSL for the majority of its upcoming scientific and Earth observation missions.”
ABSL has also supplied batteries for ESA’s Mars Express mission which was launched in June 2003. This spacecraft has recently completed a particularly demanding solar eclipse season. This eclipse season coincided with the spacecraft being at aphelion, which means that the spacecraft is at its furthest point from Earth, reducing the power available to recharge the batteries. During this period, the spacecraft spent as long as 75 minutes hidden from the Sun during which time it was 100% powered by ABSL’s batteries.
Rob Spurrett, ABSL Space Products director said “ABSL is committed to providing the international space industry with a quality product that assures mission success under the harshest conditions.”
In addition to Mars and Low Earth Orbit ABSL has been selected to supply batteries for missions to Medium Earth Orbit, Geostationary Earth Orbit, the Moon, various Lagrange points, Venus and Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in the far reaches of the solar system.
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