1989 – 2019: Three decades of power systems evolution through the prism of ESPC

The first European Space Power Conference took place in Madrid (Spain) on October 1989, i.e. thirty years before the twelfth, held in Juan-Les-Pins (France). This is a good opportunity to look back at these three decades, which have seen major evolutions in the power systems constituents and, to a lesser extent, architectures. The present paper will first assess the 1989 status, trace these changes through the content of the successive ESPC and try, very cautiously, to sketch a possible, if not foreseeable, future. Are addressed batteries, solar cells and solar generators, power components, converters and systems topologies as well as modelling and testing. Some specific aspects are reviewed in more details when they are either interesting witnesses or precursors of key topics.