Power Supply Technology

Nowadays, deep space probes have traveled much farther in more complicated environments in diversified missions, bringing about higher demands on power systems [1]. The characteristics of the power supply systems of the deep space probes are closely related to the location and mission type of the target celestial body. For inner planets (e.g., Mercury, Venus), the probes will be subject to high-temperature and high-illumination-intensity environment. Therefore, heating resistance and radiation resistance measures should be considered for power system design, especially solar arrays; while for outer planets (e.g., Mars, Jupiter, Saturn), the probes will be subject to low-temperature and low-illumination-intensity environment, so solar array should have high conversion rate, large area, high power and low mass, and MPPT-type power controllers should be applied as possible to maximize the utilization of solar energy for the power system. For landing exploration on the celestial bodies and sample return missions, the impacts of factors such as the atmosphere and dust of the celestial bodies on the solar spectrum should also be considered for the power system design [2], or nuclear energy should be applied to eliminate the effects of sunlight and other environmental conditions [3, 4].