Development of electrical power supply system for micro-satellite with maximum power point tracking

Abstract

The development of intelligent power supply system for small satellite has always been a major challenge in satellite communication. Maximum Power Point Tracking approach offers numerous advantages, has become a main candidate for the power supply system for small satellite. This thesis presents the research and development work done on designing and developing a Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) for microsatellite system. The MPPT techniques that are analyzed in this research are the Open circuit solar voltage, Perturbation & Observation, Incremental Conductance and Hybrid MPPT. Through the study on the hostile effects in space on the Component-Off-The-Shelves, a Buck type switch mode power supply with variable duty cycle and microcontroller were designed and built by using space qualified components for conducting experiments in this research.