Failure mechanisms and protection methods of spacecraft power system

Recent telecommunication satellites often have power larger than 10 kW. As the power level increases, so does the operational voltage that also exceeds 100 V for the recent high power satellites. As the power level and the voltage become higher, anomaly associated with failure of the power system has become a serious problem, which sometimes led to complete loss of the satellites. Many GEO telecommunication satellite suffer arcing on solar array surface when spacecraft surface is charged by energetic charged particles. Due to the arcing, a part of solar array circuit is completely lost causing substantial shortage of available power. Failure of Advanced Earth Observation Satellite (ADEOS) II was attributed to arcing among power cables. This paper reviews the recent accidents of satellite power system failure and the mitigation methods against the failures.