ENERGY HARVESTING AND STORAGE FOR SMALL SATELLITE APPLICATIONS

Small satellites face critical power challenges due to strict limitations for size, weight, and power, especially when subjected to extreme temperatures in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Current lithium-ion batteries are unable to operate below -40°C without a resistive battery heater, reducing the amount of power available for mission critical systems. Additionally, solar power is the most common energy source for small satellites and current solar cell technologies are limited by efficiency, degradation, and size constraints when designing small satellites. This thesis provides two novel solutions including a Lithium-ion Battery (LIB) made with MXene material, and a Perovskite Solar Array (PSA) that was integrated with the LIB for energy harvesting and storage at extreme conditions (+80°C to -100°C). MXene (Ti₃C₂-F) was designed to create a conductive material to be incorporated as an electrode for use in LIBs. LIBs were made with this MXene resulting in discharge capacities of 18 mAh/g at -100°C, 48 mAh/g at -60°C, and over 78 mAh/g at +60°C and +80°C. Additionally, a PSA was developed by connecting six PSCs in series and then integrated with LIBs at both Room Temperature (RT) and -60°C, producing charge capacities of 131 mAh/g and 109 mAh/g, respectively. The PSA-LIB system was refined throughout this thesis and demonstrates the scalability of a perovskite as a solar array material while proving that LIBs can be developed without a resistive battery heater for future small satellite applications. Furthermore, this PSA-LIB system reduces wasted power and advances perovskite technology for future LEO operations.