Charge and Discharge Performance of the Lithium-ion Secondary Battery in Space

Abstract

The lithium-ion secondary cells/batteries are commonly used for the spacecraft, today. 'REIMEI' satellite is also an example using lithium-ion secondary battery. It used 3 Ah-class off-the-shelf lithium-ion secondary cells, which used the spinel LiMnO4 for the positive and graphite for the negative electrode. Seven cells were connected in series, and two series strings were connected in parallel. The satellite was launched in August, 2005, and injected into the low earth polar orbit. Initially, the battery performance was simulated based on the dependency of the cell performance on temperature. Considering the impedance and discharge performance depending on temperature, the end-of-discharge-voltage during the operation had been precisely controlled. Seven years operation of the lithium-ion secondary battery under the micro-gravity conditions have been demonstrated through the REIMEI operation in space.