The GOES-R Lithium Ion Battery System: An Enabling Technology on the GOES-R Series Satellites

The GOES-R Series Satellites will advance NOAA's Earth and Space Weather Observation capability starting in the second half of this decade. Often the focus of NOAA's observation platforms is on the science instruments, and rightly so. They provide the raw data used to protect U.S. citizens from extreme weather and further the understanding of our climate. Overlooked are the enabling Spacecraft technologies that these instruments rely on. This paper describes the Spacecraft bus technologies to be used on the GOES-R Series Satellites to enable the precise and highly-reliable collection of weather data, including precision-pointing gimbals, active and passive vibration control, long-life gyroscopes and star trackers, high-reliability flight command and data handling, and the lithium ion battery system. The paper focuses on the last of these technologies. GOES-R will be the first U.S. National Asset to use lithium ion batteries. The advantages of lithium ion batteries over prior technologies are explained. The components of the system are described, including the battery, cell balancing electronics, charge/discharge electronics, and the charge control algorithms. Performance characteristics and life test results are summarized. Finally, safety measures are described.