ABSTRACT
The power system design process starts with analyzing the orbit parameters, the load power requirement, and heritage data on similar satellites built and flown earlier. The design that meets the mission requirements at minimum mass, volume, and cost at present generally incorporates new technologies as they become available and space qualified. The design process starts with a top-level trade analyses — formal or informal — in order to select the power system architecture that would lead to an optimized design. The detailed design then follows and continues in several iterations until it is fully optimized. The engineer would know that the design is fully optimized when a small change in any one component would result in a penalty of some sort at the power system level or at the spacecraft level.
