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The Application in Spacecraft of High Temperature
Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage
Bo Yi1 and Hui Huang1, 2
1
School of Electrical Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China
2
State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves, Nanjing 210096, China
Abstract— This paper has analyzed the requirement of energy storage devices in spacecraft
and introduced the present development situation of high temperature superconducting magnetic
energy storage technology, then conceives an idea that applying the skill of high temperature
superconducting magnetic energy storage in spacecraft to replace the existing energy storage
devices in spacecraft. Also, a comprehensive comparing among the high temperature superconducting magnetic energy storage technology and other existing energy storage technologies
such as flywheel energy storage technology, battery energy storage technology has been done.
The conclusion that the high temperature superconducting magnetic energy storage technology
has more advantages than other existing energy storage technologies in application of aerospace
technology is reached.
1. THE REQUIREMENT OF ENERGY STORAGE DEVICES IN SPACECRAFT
Energy storage devices in spacecraft is used for transforming chemical energy and other types of
energy into electric energy. Its main functions are below: (1) supplying electricity from spacecraft
being launched to the time that solar panels started; (2) supplying electricity for spacecraft at dark
period; (3) supplying auxiliary electricity when the supplying of solar battery is not sufficient at light
period. Spacecrafts usually adopt battery as energy storage devices. But there are many obvious
deficiencies, which will be mentioned below. Since the performance and lifetime of energy storage
devices have limited the development of spacecraft for a long time, spacecraft has such aspects
of requirements for energy storage devices: (1) the requirements for electrical property such as
high energy, small mass and high power; (2) properly sealed in case of electrolyte evaporation for
chemical battery; (3) capable of resisting for mechanical environments; (4) the requirements for
heat output [1].
2. THE PRESENT DEVELOPMENT SITUATION OF HIGH TEMPERATURE
SUPERCONDUCTING MAGNETIC ENERGY STORAGE TECHNOLOGY
Superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) is a remarkable application of superconducting magnets, especially for high temperature superconducting magnetic energy storage technology
(HTSMES). The potential utilization of high-temperature superconducting materials is especially
promising in order to obtain energy storage devices showing high efficiency and lifetime HTSMES
device is made up of a superconducting coil, a power conditioning system and a refrigerator and
a vacuum to keep the coil at low temperature. It stores electric energy as direct electric current
passing through a superconducting coil. Because the superconducting material has nearly zero
resistance, the electric current can almost circulate indefinitely. The energy stored in the coil can
be calculated by the formula E = 0.5LI 2 , where L is the inductance of the coil and I is the current
passing through it. Storage capacity for HTSMES is quite outstanding. For SMES, it can be
anything up to 20 MW. SMES devices can run for thousands of charge/discharge cycles without
any degradation to the magnet, giving it a life of 20+ years. In the recent study, some scientists
proposed the design of 300 MJ I-ITS superconducting magnetic energy storage system. In addition, from 2004 to 2007, a 10 MVA/20 MJ SMES prototype for a 100 MW commercial system was
developed in Japan [2]. In 2010, the superconducting magnet designed with the basic requirements
including a total storage energy of 2 MJ and a storage energy density of 2.73 MJ/m3 has been
achieved [3].
3. APPLYING THE SKILL OF HIGH TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTING
MAGNETIC ENERGY STORAGE IN SPACECRAFT
Due to the lack of air convection when spacecraft is on the orbit, the temperature of the side face
to Sun can be heated to above 373 K while the temperature of the other side can be below 173 K.
Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium Proceedings, Marrakesh, Morocco, Mar. 20–23, 2011 459
The extreme temperature difference makes a perfect environment for applying of superconducting.
In addition, although it costs a lot and takes a large proportion of volume and mass for a refrigerator and a vacuum to keep the coil at low temperature at superconducting storage devices, the
refrigerator and devices to keep vacuum are not needed in space any more, which also makes the
applying of HTS-SMES in spacecraft has more advantages.
However, the biggest problem for applying HTSMES in to spacecraft is the relatively low energy
density, which is expected to solve in the inherent low temperature environment like in space.
4. A COMPREHENSIVE COMPARING AMONG THE HIGH TEMPERATURE
SUPERCONDUCTING MAGNETIC ENERGY STORAGE TECHNOLOGY AND OTHER
EXISTING ENERGY STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES
(1) Storage battery
Storage battery has such deficiencies: (1) the scope of its temperature admission is narrow;
(2) the discharge capacity and efficiency decreased as the increasing of the number of recharge
cycles; (3) the lifetime is short; (4) it takes much time for charging; (5) it may cause pollution.
(2) Flywheel energy storage
A flywheel is a mechanical device with a significant moment of inertia used as a storage
device for rotational energy. The flywheel is proving to be an ideal form of energy storage
on account of its high efficiency, long cycle life, wide operating temperature range, freedom
from depth-of-discharge effects, and higher power and energy density — on both a mass and
a volume basis [4–6]. There also some scientists proposed that the application of flywheel
on satellite energy storage/attitude control system (ACS), which has advantages shown in
Table 1 below [7].
Table 1: The advantages of ACS.
the characteristic of attitude control system
long lifetime
large moment of control force
high efficiency
high energy density
advantages
decrease the cost of maintaining and
replacing energy storage
decrease the requirement of propulsion force
decrease the cost of energy
decrease the mass of energy storage devices
But when the ACS is operating, it can be a big disturb to the attitude of spacecraft, which
will affect the normal operation of spacecraft. This is a very complicated nonlinear system,
whose control is very difficult to achieve, especially for spacecraft with small mass.
(3) High temperature superconducting magnetic energy storage
HTSMES systems have the following advantages compared to other energy storage systems:
1. High cyclic efficiency — HTSMES can achieve an high overall cyclic efficiency; 2. Fast
response time — HTSMES has pure electrical energy conversion, whilst other energy storage
devices involve either electrical-chemical or electrical-mechanical energy conversion, which
is much slower; 3. Deep discharge and recharge ability — unlike batteries, HTSMES can
discharge and recharge fully for an unlimited number of times; 4. Good balance between
power density and energy density — although SMES does not have the highest power density
or the highest energy density, it does have a good balance between them, which is very
important for aircraft systems [8].
5. CONCLUSION
As technology develops, the energy density of HTSMES can be enhanced especially for application in space environment. Compared to HTSMES, then traditional battery storage has obvious
disadvantages and has no special advantages. For flywheel energy storage, its obvious advantage
is that the operation of flywheel is a big disturb for the stability of spacecraft, which may make
the control of the whole spacecraft too complicated. What’s more, the future trend for flywheel
energy storage is also adopting superconducting to increase its efficiency, which makes flywheel
energy storage have the same parts of device used for keeping its soil in low temperature as the
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HTSMES. On the contrary, HTSMES will not bring about a disturb. Although its energy density
may be lower than flywheel storage now, its energy density will increased because there is no need
for refrigerator in space And in order to ensure its operation environment, we can at least adopt
hybrid system including battery and HTSMES or ACS and HTSMES, which may alleviate the
disturb to an extent that can be controlled and satisfy the energy supply at the same time.
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