Batteries in space

They must be able to operate over a wide temperature range, and must not emit gases that would corrode the space vehicle, disturb its trajectory, or contaminate instruments or life support systems.

Early satellites had design lives of only a few weeks or months, and could carry enough primary batteries to provide the required service life.

A satellite near the Earth will be shadowed for half of each orbit, and so requires batteries to maintain operation.

This improves the standby life of the battery, since side reactions cannot occur if the electrolyte and electrodes are separated.

They are used in missiles that have long standby time, or in space probes that require power during landing on a planet.