Lunar Surface Secondary Battery Modules for Continuous Day/Night Operation

Future science missions to the Lunar surface will require advanced secondary battery systems that can operate from -230 ºC to +120 ºC. Advancements that address battery operation at extreme temperatures, combined with high specific energy and energy density are critically needed. Conventional rechargeable Li-ion cells operate within a narrow temperature range of -20 to 40 ºC, and they particularly suffer from capacity loss at lower temperatures. Improved batteries combined with light weight thermal management are critically needed for diurnal lunar survival. The solution is a new battery module using new low temperature tolerant battery cells and a novel diurnal thermal management system. It is also critical to use high voltage batteries to produce the high energy density battery modules that exceed >150 Wh/kg at the full system level including thermal management.