by Emil Morhardt
CubeSats are cool. No, actually very cold, since they’re out in space. But they are reproducing like rabbits. There are well over 200 of these little 10 cm X 10 cm X 10 cm cube satellites have been launched into orbit by tucking them into the nooks and crannies in the launch vehicles around much larger satellites. (Some are multiples of cubes, 10 cm X 20 cm, or 30 cm.) They need energy. Until now they have been powered in the main by lithium ion batteries like those in your computer, and charged by the photovoltaic panels that make up a CubeSat’s skin. The thing is that these batteries don’t work very well when they are cold; the speed of electrochemical reactions, just like those of every other chemical reaction, are modulated by temperature—the colder the slower. The current Li-ion batteries don’t work at all below –10°C, yet CubeSats headed for deep space are expected to encounter temperatures of –40°C some of the time. So if you have a CubeSat process that needs power at low temperatures or a short-term burst of power faster than the batteries can provide, you need help. Continue reading
