international space station to get 787-style batteries - li ion battery cell
Paul MarksNASA is pushing ahead with a plan to install lithium
Ion batteries on the International Space Station (ISS)
New scientists already know.
The batteries are similar to those used on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which since January has pulled out of global commercial services due to a fire in two aircraft batteries.
NASA says lithium
The ion battery offers compelling benefits that it believes can be overcome with any safety issue.
The agency intends to use batteries from GS Yuasa, Kyoto, Japan, which also makes lithium batteries for Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
After the fire, Boeing has improved the aircraft battery, but the new design has not yet been certified by the Federal Aviation Administration.
NASA is in progress because it says the "proper design" of the battery pack will allow it to take advantage of the brightness and additional power provided by Lithium
Ion technology-easier than the current nickel metal --
Hydrogen batteries used on the International Space Station.
"The benefits [lithium’s]
NASA spokesman Josh Byerly said at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas: "The higher power density is too noticeable to be ignored . ".
The technology will halve the launch payload, he said.
"Because the cost of space launch is very high, one can see the benefits of this method.
The Boeing 787 battery pack contains eight lithium.
Ion batteries manufactured by GS Yuasa and assembled by French-based multinational aerospace contractor Thales.
Boeing says an overheating of a battery releases heat to neighboring batteries and causes them to overheat, an effect called heat out of control.
A jet at Logan Airport in Boston caught fire and another was melted into the flight, causing emergency landing and evacuation in Japan.
Boeing redesigned the battery pack to improve problems such as physical and thermal isolation and testing of the battery
Flew earlier this month.
However, the exact cause of the lithium battery fire has not yet been accurately determined, and the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Commission are still considering solutions.
Boeing is also a major contractor for the International Space Station.
NASA says it's working with it, using its battery.
Assemble the subcontractor Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and do everything possible to ensure that the hazard is minimized-in this case, byerly said: "The conditions that may cause the cells to get out of control are designed from the system, safety control can keep the cells within the allowable range. ".
Design and testing will also ensure that if a dangerous event does occur, "it is contained and will not spread to uncontrolled events," he said ".
NASA says the situation on the international space station is very different from the aircraft because the battery is installed outside of a pressurized unit module on a structural pallet called a truss. “In the near-vacuum of low-
Earth orbit, while a battery failure that leads to an out-of-control heat event will provide its own fuel and oxygen generator, if designed properly, nothing can spread this event beyond a single battery, not to mention the battery components. "Byerly said.
What happens to the space station if the entire battery is overheated?
"I don't want to fall into a hypothetical situation," Byerly said . ".
"The risk is small.