Undergraduates build power system for moon orbiter

The European Student Moon Orbiter (ESMO) is an education outreach project by the European Space Agency (ESA) that gathers 23 teams across the continent — all working on different systems such as the chemical propulsion and power electronics.

The ESMO payload includes a camera that will hopefully facilitate operation by school children, as well as experiments including a Cubesat that will launch from ESMO and go into lower orbit to study the moon’s local gravity.

It will be the job of students at Warwick to deliver a constant source of power to these payloads throughout the journey and ensure they are integrated effectively.

While the design is constantly evolving due to the changing nature of the project, the power system will consist of two solar panels, a battery and a central power-conditioning and distribution unit.

Because of the demanding conditions, such as the changing angle of the sun, power distribution has been a primary concern and the students are working on a bespoke maximum power point tracking system (MPTSP).