Bipolar nickel-hydrogen battery development-a program review

An overview of spacecraft power system design trends, focusing on higher power bus voltages and improved energy storage systems, is followed by a discussion of bipolar Ni/H/sub 2/ battery development efforts. Several 10-cell batteries and on 50-cell battery are described, and performance results are presented. A comparison of individual-pressure-vessel and bipolar Ni/H/sub 2/ technologies is used to suggest a new direction for bipolar Ni/H/sub 2/ battery development efforts, toward a large number of passively cooled cells in parallel.<>