Spacecraft Electrical Passivation: From Study to Reality

Abstract

Due to the increasing risk posed on satellites from space debris, requirements are now being implemented into satellites to be launched in the future to prevent the release of additional debris. One of the key requirements is the electrical passivation of satellites at end of mission (EoM) in order to prevent the break-up of satellites due to the stored energy in the power subsystem. In order to comply with these new specifications and find suitable solutions for the upcoming missions, a set of workshops and R&D activities have been initiated and conducted in the past few years. In particular it has provided a better understanding of the environmental constraints and the battery safety after EoM, together with the identification of the most appropriate implementations for electrical passivation. The latest available results of these activities and the ongoing work are presented within this paper. In addition, new spacecraft under development are currently implementing electrical passivation solutions taking into account the conclusions of these studies.