Design of Electrical Power Subsystem for IITMSAT

This paper describes the design, development and test results of the Electrical Power Subsystem (EPS) of IITMSAT — the nano-satellite project of Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM). IITMSAT's payload comprises of an indigenously designed and developed Space based Proton Electron Energy Detector (SPEED). It is designed to measure the high energy particle precipitations just below the Van Allen Belts. Apart from SPEED, the satellite electronics include the health monitoring sensors, attitude sensors, three 32-bit ARM microcontrollers to process the data, communication module, Beacon, Command and Data Management System (CDMS) and electromagnetic actuators (Torque Rods) to align the satellite along the Earth's local magnetic field in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO). This indigenous EPS was designed and developed using low-cost, high-performance commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components of industrial grade, to power loads of about 6 Watts. This paper describes the satellite power requirements, EPS hardware design, simulation results followed by practical results obtained from the prototype hardware.