Reliability-Enhanced Electrical Power System for Nanosatellites

The low reliability of the electrical power systems (EPSs) is one of the major factors responsible for the high number of nanosatellite mission failures. Although several reliability-enhancing techniques have been proposed in the past, most studies do not take into account their applicability, overlooking the cost, power, and board area required for them to be implemented. In light of this, the present work proposes an EPS architecture that incorporates four reliability-enhancing techniques into a low-cost, small-footprint design. Namely, methodical COTS selection, processor-less design, partial standby redundancy, and load monitoring and control. Each technique was thoughtfully chosen to enhance reliability without compromising other design areas. The entire proposal was backed up by block diagrams, theoretical analysis, and SPICE circuit simulations. Furthermore, this work also proposes a three-metric system for evaluating and comparing the reliability of different EPS architectures. Based on this evaluation method, it was possible to compare the EPS architecture presented herein with its previous version and with the NanoPower P31U, which is designed by GomSpace. Comparison results confirmed the effectiveness of the techniques that were incorporated into this EPS, indicating that it exhibits the highest architecture reliability among the three candidates that were considered for this analysis.