Session
Advanced Technologies 2
Location
Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, UT
Abstract
The continued expansion of space activities across commercial, governmental, and defense sectors has increased the demand for reliable, flexible, and high-performance electrical power systems. In contrast to terrestrial environments where a broad range of power generation and storage solutions exist—space systems remain constrained to limited options, primarily solar arrays and batteries. These constraints introduce significant design trade-offs in mass, volume, and system complexity, often forcing spacecraft architectures to be dictated by available power rather than mission-driven performance requirements.
High-power missions are particularly affected by these limitations. Delivering elevated power levels typically requires either large battery packs or extensive solar array deployments, both of which increase launch mass, cost, and operational complexity. This creates a fundamental bottleneck in the evolution of high-performance payloads and propulsion systems.
Magdrive has addressed this challenge through the development of a compact pulsed power system originally designed to support high-power plasma propulsion. The system generates high-power pulses by rapidly discharging stored energy, enabling efficient energy delivery in short, controlled bursts. Derived from architectures previously developed for large-scale pulsed power systems in fusion applications, the technology has been miniaturized and space-qualified into a modular format.
The resulting system enables high peak power delivery independent of continuous power input limitations. Beyond propulsion, this approach provides a flexible platform for applications requiring efficient energy storage and rapid discharge, both in orbit and on Earth.
Document Type
Event
Magdrive Power System for Next Generation High Power SmallSat Needs
Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, UT
The continued expansion of space activities across commercial, governmental, and defense sectors has increased the demand for reliable, flexible, and high-performance electrical power systems. In contrast to terrestrial environments where a broad range of power generation and storage solutions exist—space systems remain constrained to limited options, primarily solar arrays and batteries. These constraints introduce significant design trade-offs in mass, volume, and system complexity, often forcing spacecraft architectures to be dictated by available power rather than mission-driven performance requirements.
High-power missions are particularly affected by these limitations. Delivering elevated power levels typically requires either large battery packs or extensive solar array deployments, both of which increase launch mass, cost, and operational complexity. This creates a fundamental bottleneck in the evolution of high-performance payloads and propulsion systems.
Magdrive has addressed this challenge through the development of a compact pulsed power system originally designed to support high-power plasma propulsion. The system generates high-power pulses by rapidly discharging stored energy, enabling efficient energy delivery in short, controlled bursts. Derived from architectures previously developed for large-scale pulsed power systems in fusion applications, the technology has been miniaturized and space-qualified into a modular format.
The resulting system enables high peak power delivery independent of continuous power input limitations. Beyond propulsion, this approach provides a flexible platform for applications requiring efficient energy storage and rapid discharge, both in orbit and on Earth.
