Design of Flexible Battery Pack And Battery Management System for Nanosatellite

A battery management system (BMS) is an integral subsystem in a Li-Ion battery pack of the electric power system in a nanosatellite. The major functions of BMS are to monitor the operating parameters of the battery pack such as voltage, current, and temperature, managing charge and discharge process and to prevent the battery from operating in unsafe operating conditions. For designing a BMS using specialized components for space operations, the system cost will be very high, and some components are not purchasable in the commercial market. This work presents the design concept of BMS in a nanosatellite using the commercially available components that can meet the requirements of the space environment as possible with certain compromises. In addition, the BMS is designed with a flexible configuration for different pack configurations, i.e., 4s2p and 8s1p capable of delivering 92Wh which is suitable for 3U and 6U nanosatellite applications. The hardware prototype of the BMS is implemented. The experimental results validate the functionality of the BMS.