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GP-B Post-Flight Analysis—Final Report - Gravity Probe B - Stanford ...

GP-B Post-Flight Analysis—Final Report - Gravity Probe B - Stanford ...

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Battery Performance Summary:Figure 8-21. Battery State of Charge Metric• Charge control determined by ground testing has proven to be satisfactory throughout the mission.• Battery Voltages in flight remain higher that from ground testing. This is due to lower DOD in flight(16% max) than was used in test (20% max).• Current share between batteries is excellent, as evidenced by identical Voltage and State of Chargeprofiles throughout the mission.• Spontaneous voltage rise at eclipse season exit indicates no degradation of the batteries since launch.8.3.8 Solar Array PowerAs previously mentioned, <strong>GP</strong>-B always points in a fixed direction at a distant guide star. Power source to the<strong>GP</strong>B spacecraft is supplied by the solar arrays that are designed and fixed positioned to receive average powerover seasonal gamma angles. Engineers at Lockheed Martin considered worst-case scenarios for the gammaangle—the angle of the sunlight to the Z-axis of the spacecraft. The worst-case gamma angle of ~22 o occursonce throughout the mission lifetime. Another consideration was the maximum 36-minute eclipse time, whichoccurs when the gamma angle is at its maximum and minimum values (158 o and 22 o ). At this angle, <strong>GP</strong>-B’sorbit plane directly faces the sun. While this only occurs a few times throughout the mission, it represents themost usage and deepest depth of discharge (DOD) by the batteriesThe orientations of the panels are arranged to optimize the amount of incident sunlight. Panels 1 and 3 arerotated 90 o with respect to the X-Y plane of the spacecraft. Panel 1 is located 45 o with panel 3 opposite it at 225 owith respect to the positive X-axis. Panels 2 and 4 are rotated 25 o and respectively located at 135 o and 315 o fromthe positive X-axis. Because of this asymmetry, the spacecraft is free to rotate about the Z-axis of the telescopewith minimal perturbations due to the dragging or torquing of the solar panels.228 March 2007 Chapter 8 — Other Spacecraft Subsystems Analyses

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