ELECTRIC POWER SUPPLY SYSTEM OF MINIATURE SPACECRAFT-NANO-SATELLITES Russian patent published in 2011 - IPC B64G1/42 

FIELD: transport.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to electric power supply systems of spacecraft. Proposed system comprises storage battery and solar battery electrically interconnected via micromechanical interlocking modules. Each said module comprises substrate with input and output buses with terminal groups. Switch made up of moving thermo mechanical actuators interacts with said terminal groups. Said actuators are made up of two or more layers that feature different thermal expansion factors. One of the layers may be made with reversible thermo mechanical shape memory. When irradiated by the Sun, solar batteries generate electric power to heat interlocking module actuators arranged on the batteries. Said actuators, when heated, get deformed to close contacts of input and output buses. This allows charging the storage battery and supplying current to other loads. With solar batteries shaded, actuators get cooled down to open contacts of said buses and rule out the storage battery discharge that causes, in particular, heating of breakdown of solar battery photo converter.

EFFECT: reduced weight and sizes, higher reliability and longer life.

2 cl, 6 dwg