The high energy density li-ion long life battery assemblies ( >190Wh/kg at cell-level ) will replace older silver zinc battery technology on the EMU for spacewalks from the ISS. ABSL heritage and innovation played a fundamental role in meeting the technical challenges involved with the replacement of the existing older technology; flexibility with battery configurations and ABSL’s ability to customize solutions for NASA allowed the li-ion replacement batteries to operate within the existing space and electrical interfaces of the equipment. With an energy density of ABSL’s battery assemblies approaching 150Wh/kg, the li-ion replacements will more than double the current run times of the older silver zinc batteries improving performance plus increasing safety and reliability.
It is currently planned for the battery assemblies to be used for the first time for spacewalk activities during the STS-134 docked duration. Manned space missions such as these require battery power sources to be, above all, safe and ABSL’s high performance batteries are designed with multiple levels of redundancy that can maintain functionality under all possible failure scenarios making sure safety is never compromised.
Earlier this year, ABSL delivered an 8s10p battery configuration to an undisclosed client for space flight, making the 4 long life battery assemblies the second successful hardware delivery to space by ABSL’s Longmont Colorado facility.