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NASA Lewis Research Center's Electrical Systems Development Branch
is leading a program to develop space flywheel energy storage
with integrated attitude control systems. The objective of this
effort is to develop a flywheel system that will reduce spacecraft
infrastructure weight and improve power system efficiency. Additional
potential benefits of these systems are their increased life and
improved system operation. These potential advantages are due
to a flywheel system's very large number of charge/recharge cycles
and their known state of charge. Our multifaceted program consists
of efforts to develop flywheels, and their components, as well
as the facilities to test them.
Development of flywheels and components is being conducted jointly
with industry. Currently, two systems are under development, one
at SatCon Technology Corp. and the other at US Flywheels. Both
of these systems are sized to store approximately 3 kW-hr of energy,
which is appropriate for large spacecraft. When complete, the
systems will be brought to NASA Lewis for evaluation and testing.
To support the development of flywheels for small spacecraft,
the Electrical Systems Development Branch has worked with the
University of Maryland and small companies, such as Fare, Inc.
This company has just completed a NASA Small Business Innovation
Research (SBIR) Phase I project to design a very small, very high
energy density flywheel that could provide 50 W at 100 Vdc. These
flywheel systems provide the foundation for further flywheel development
at NASA.
Flywheel component development, which is being performed by many
organizations at NASA Lewis in concert with universities and industry,
is being coordinated by Lewis' Electrical Systems Development
Branch.
A flywheel test facility, which is designed to evaluate flywheel systems as part of an overall spacecraft electrical power system, is being constructed at NASA Lewis. It will be able to measure both electrical and mechanical parameters during the full-speed operation of a flywheel system. The first phase, which allows control and testing of an operating flywheel at a reduced speed (i.e., lower stored energy), has been completed. Later phases will add enhancements to the facility, such as life testing and attitude dynamics. When complete, this facility will be able to simulate a complete operational spacecraft electrical power system.
Previous articleLast updated April 30, 1997
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