[amsat-bb] Re: Future radical satellite designs

I have mentioned this before and will again: Why not construct clusters of low voltage batteries each with their own set of solar cells. Then each low voltage battery ( 3 volts or so) has its own boost voltage converter to charge to a much higher voltage bus (15-24 volts). In this way, the failure or depletion of a battery will affect only the available current on the bus, not the voltage.

The solar cells could then be placed on all sides of the spacecraft and charge their associated batteries at will, with no concern of having the entire solar cell array in same plane with the sun as there would be with a high voltage string of solar cells.