TF; 1975 GSFC BATTERY WORKSHOP (NAS3-TI?-X-71-34) IH'r 1975 GSFC EAT'XERY UOFKSHCE (SASX) 342 F HC P19.CL CSCL 1CC Unclas ~3144 41513 THE 1975 GSFC BATTERY WORKSHOP November 1975 GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER Greenbelt, Maryland CONTENTS -Page INTRODUCTION TO KEYNOTE ADDRESS, F. FO~~/GSFC........ 1 KEYNOTE ADDRESS, J. ~urcell/~~F~.................. 1 STANDARD CELL/BATTERY, G. Halpert/GSFC. ............ 4 SEPARATORS (Chairman: G. Halpert/GSFC) 1. DEGRADATION OF NYLON, H. ~im/HughesResearch ..... 9 2. CYCLE TEST RESULTS, NYLON & POLYPROPYLENE, T. Henningan/GSFC ..................... 16 3. CADMIUM MIGRATION IN SEPARATORS, P. ~c~ermott/ Coppin State College ..................... 19 4. TEFLONATED ELECTRODES, L. Miller/Eagle Picher. .... 2 8 CHEMICAL ANALYSIS (Chairman: G. ~alpert/GSFC) 1. ELECTROLYTE DISTRIBUTION & POTENTIALS, Dr. L. May/ Catholic University ...................... 34 2. REFERENCE ELECTRODE TECHNOLOGY, S. ~rause/ Hughes Aircraft. ....................... 39 CELL MANUFACTURING (Chairman: F. ~ord/GsFC) 1. TEFLONATED NEGATIVES, S. Kraclse/Hughes Aircraft .... 4 5 2. PERFORMANCE OF PLATES FROM DIFFERENT SPIRALS, Dr. W. Scott/TRW ...................... 4 9 3. LEAK DETECTION IN CELLS, S. ~ross/~oeing......... 59 4. PULSE CHARGING, Dr. H. Cheh/Columbia University ..... 6 2 5. REWORKING CELLS - ELECTROLYTE REMOVAL, F. Ford/GSFC ........................ 7 0 iii CONTENTS (continued) -Page OPEN DISCUSSION (Chairman: F. Ford/GSFC) ............. 79 Panel Members: Dr. W. Scott/TRW; S. Krause/HAC; F. Betz/NRL; S. ~ross/~oeing;G. H~~P~~~/GSFC FLIGHT BATTERY EXPERIENCE (Chairman: W. ~ebster/GSFC) 1. RESULTS FROM LOW EARTH ORBIT TESTING FOR 3S0, S. Krause/Hughes Aircraft. ................. 2. LIFE CYCLE TEST DATA, ATS-6 & OSO-8, W. Webster/ GSFC ............................. 3. SMS BATTERY PERFORMANCE, J. Armantrout/ Aeronutronic- Ford ...................... 4. NATO RATTERY PERFORMANCE, D. Briggs/ Aeronutronic-Ford ...................... 5. FLIGHT AND TEST DATA ON SATCOM, THE M35 BATTERY AND A ONE KW BATTERY DESIGN, Dr. W. Scott/~RW . 6. TRANSIT & SAS BATTERY PERFORMANCE, R. ~ullivan/A~~ TESTING (Chairman: W. ~ebster/GSFC) 1. ACCELERATED TEST PROGRAM, D. Mains/NWSC-Crane ... 2. TZSTS ON 50AH, 20WH/LB CELLS, D. ~ickett/W~AFB.... 3. CHARGE CONTROL PARAMETE- AFFECTING NiCd CYCLE LIFE, M. ~mamura/~~rtinMarietta. ............ 4. STATE OF CHARGE ON VENTED NiCd BATTERIES, D. Jones/. Radian Corporation. ..................... 5. EFFECTS OF PULSE AND DC CHARGING ON VENTED NiCd BATTERIES, M. Sulkes/USAECoM ............. CONTENTS (continued) Page- 6. EFFECTS OF STORAGE MODES ON NiCd CELLS (OAO), J. Harkness/NW~~-Crane................... 196 7. CELLS STORED SHORTED - EFFECTS ON PERFORMANCE, w. SCOWTRW......................... 201 8. AE AXD ITOS BATTERY PERFORMANCE, G. ~alpert/~S~C. 207 NICKEL HYDROGEN STATUS (Chairman: T. Henningan/GSFC) 1. 35AH NICKEL HYDROGEN CELLS, J. Stockel/c~M~A~..... 211 2. NICKEL HYDROGEN BATTERY FOR NTS-2, F. BetdNRL ... 213 3. VARIOUS DESIGNS OF NICKEL HYDROGEN CELLS AND BATTERIES, L. Miller/Eagle Picher. ............ 221 4. AIR FORCE APPROACHES TO LOW ORBIT NICKEL HYDROGEN CELLS, D. Warnock/WPAFB .......... 227 5. NICKEL HYDROGEN DEVELOPMENT FOR SYNCHRONOUS ORBIT, R. ~atterson/~~W.................. 232 6. TESTING OF 20AH NICKEL HYDROGEN CELLS, M. Gandel/Lockheed ...................... 239 7. LOW EARTH ORBIT TESTING OF A NICKEL HYDROGEN CELL - STATUS REPORT, H. Rogers/HAC ......... 245 8. PROBLEM AREAS IN NICKEL HYDROGEN CELLS, G. Holleck/~IC,Incorporated ................. 249 ILLUSTRATIONS First Day Figure Speaker -Page 12 Halpert 257 3,4 Lim 257 5,6,7 Lim 258 8.9.10.11 Lim 259 12,13,14,15 Lim 260 16,17,18 Lim 261 19,20,21,22 Hennigan 262 23,24,25,26 McDermot, 263 27.28 McDermott 264 29,30,31 Miller 265 32,33,24,35 Miller 266 36,37,38,39 May 267 4O,4l,42 May 268 4 3 May 269 44,45,46 Krause 269 4 7 Krause 2 70 48,49 Krause 271 50.51 Scott 271 52,53 Scott 272 54,55 Gross 2 73 56,57 Cheh 2 73 58,59,60,61 Cheh 2 74 62,63,64,65 Ford 2 75 66 Ford 2 76 6 7 Bogner 277 Second Day Krause Webster Webster Webster Armalltrout Armantrout Armantrout Armantrout Briggs Br iggs Br iggs ILLUSTRATIONS (continued) Second Day Figure- Speakr Page- 102,103,104 Br iggs 287 105,106,107,108 Scott 288 109,110,111 Scott 289 112,113,114,115 Sullivan 290 116,117,118,119 Sullivan 291 120,121,122,123,124,125,126 Mains 292 127,128,129,130,131 Mains 293 132,133,134,135 Pickett 294 136,137,138 Pickett 295 139,140,141,142 Imamura 296 143,144,145,146 Imamura 297 147,148,149,150 Imamura 298 151,152,153,154 Jones 299 155,156,157,158 Jones 3 00 159,160,161 Jones 301 162,163,164,165 Sulkes 302 166,167,168,169 Sulkes 3 03 170,171,172,173 Sulkes 3 04 174,175,176 Harkness 3 05 177,178,179,180 Harkness 306 181,182,183,184 Harkness 307 185,186,187,188 Scott 308 189,190,191,192 Scott 309 193 Scott 310 194,185,196,197 Halpert 311 198 Stockel 312 199,200,201,202 Betz 313 203,204,205 Betz 314 206,207,208,209 Miller 315 210,211,212,213 Miller 316 214,215,216,217 Warnock 317 218,219 Warnock 318 220,221,222,223 Patterson 319 224,225,226,227 Patterson 320 228,229,230,231 Patterson 321 23 2 Patterson 322 233,234,235,236 Gandel 323 237,238,239,240 Gandel 324 vii ILLUSTRATIONS (conthued) Second Day -Figure Speaker Page 241,242 Gandel 325 243,244,245,246 Rogers 326 247,248 Rogers 327 249,250 Holleck 328 PROCEEDINGS INTRODUCTION & KEYNOTE ADDRESS FORD: I would like to take this opportunity to extend a hearty welcome to all of you to Goddard Space Flight Center. A lot of you are familiar, have familiar faces. Some of you may be here for the first time and for whatever your reasons for attending the workshop, we are glad you are here and we en- courage your participation. The workshop is labeled as a Goddard workshop, but in reality it is your , workshop because without you we would not be here today. We have a very busy session today. We have the rechargeable cocktail hour tonight and then tomorrow we finish up the ni-cads in the morning session and tomorrow after lunch we have an afternoon planned for nickel hydrogen. As in the past, we have kicked off the workshop with a keynote speaker and in view of the current NASA impetus on standard spacecraft, studard systems, and standard componente, it seemed most appropriate that this be the suhject for this morning's guest speaker. We are honored to have with us this morning a speaker that has spent most of his professional life devoted to tho space program. He wae involved in the early sixties in a number of Goddard programs including the very successful OGO, Orbiting Geophysical Observatory. In the latter part of the sixties he served ae project manager of the highly successful OLIOprogram. Subsequently, he directed a number of study programs at Goddard which has formed the baais of the standard spacecraft concept, so it ie with pleasure and honor that I introduce to you this morning Joseph Purcell, Director of the Engineering Directorate at Goddard Space Flight Center and the leader and principal motivator of the standard spacecraft concept. Let ue welcome Joe Purcell. PURCELL: Thank you, Floyd. I feel a little bit taken aback. I suddenly saw the program and saw this was to be a keynote addrese and Floyd had asked 8 me to stop over and say a few words, so I hope I will have a few things of in- terest for you and then let you get on quickly with the rest of the day. I have a pereonal interest in ni-cad batteries that extends back to the early eixties where in the Orbiting Geophysical Observatory MQ sleo were at- tempting to use silver ctkdmi~batteries and after that eqmsure, have certainly I come to appreciate the nickel cadmium battery. A little bit later on I got in- volved with the OAO program, the first OAO suffered from a power system failure. So se I became project manager for the succeeding OGO1s, you can imagins quite a bit of attention was paid to the design of the power subsystem, batteries, the battery charger, solar arrays and the entire subsystem and in spite of all of that attention several months, maybe four or five months before launch of the next OAO, during the system level thermal vacuum test, we dis- covered we had a battery problem. The third electrode failed to give a proper signal and on further investigation we found that hydrogen gas was being gen- erated and we really had a catastrophic failure mode on our hands, so with the help of both a lot of contractor and government people there was a real crash program put together to build a new battery with integration at the Cape which we did and flew and that spacecraft lasted 50 months until we finally turned it off because the telescope systems had failed, but the power system was still working well. And the last OAO is still up there working well after more than three years with, again, a good battery system in it, so that really the battery sys- tems that we are using are the cornerstone of some of their longer-lived missions. As moat of you know, we have started a standard cell program and later speakers will discuss that so I am not going to go into detail, but I would like to tell you how it relates to higher levels of assembly, subsystems, standard spacecraft, into +ha future. First, we are serious about standardization. Over the past 15 years Goddard has launched some 100 spacecraft having 25 different types of space- craft and they were probably 25 different types of battery packs in those space- craft and we cannot afford to cmtinue that.