Addressing Space Cell and Battery Safety Design through Standardized Qualification Tests: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics S-144-2018
Authors: Reed Brad 
Published: February 2020

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautic's (AIAA) S-144-2018 "Qualification and Acceptance Tests for Commoditized Space Battery Cells" is a new, voluntary consensus standard that provides a minimum set of performance and prescriptive requirements, available as an international standard, to all launch vehicle, spacecraft, or space satellite customers of commoditized battery cells. The qualification protocol, created over a two-year period through review by subject matter experts, is intended for “Class “A’” space missions, but may be tailored to adjust for class “B”, “C”, or “D” missions.”

Historically, space cells have been specially-engineered components. No cell from one manufacturer could be used as a drop-in replacement for another manufacturer’s cell in any battery unit. To make batteries modular and scalable, being prescriptive in standardizing the outside dimensions of a cell is essential to commoditize the product, much like what has been successfully accomplished in the US terrestrial cell industry through the U.S. Department of Commerce with “AAA”, “AA”, “C”, or “D”-sized cells. To this end, AIAA S-144-2018 standardizes 18650, 21700, 26650, and 5781173 cell sizes for space missions.

To aid in standardizing both safety and technology transition from research to commoditization, the standard sets a minimum set of space cell-level qualification and acceptance tests that are mapped to freely-available requirements set by the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, Air Force Space Command Range Safety, the Aerospace Corporation, NASA, NASA Range Safety, the International Standards Organization (ISO), and the United Nations.

The space cell formats described by the specification are chosen because they are commodities in the industry – each size is offered by two or more cell manufacturers. The exterior dimensions set by this specification have heritage, history, and on-orbit experience. This standard allows flexibility for manufacturers to use any proprietary materials within the cell case to increase long-life specific energy, while maintaining a drop-in cell replacement approach to battery assembly.

Nine benefits are realized by moving the space cell from a specially-engineered device to the status of a commodity through this approach. Patterned after other successful commoditization programs, the standard:

Provides drop-in alternatives from multiple manufacturers, reducing program office costs and schedule delays

Makes batteries modular and scalable, minimizing customer costs by reducing the need for changes in mission-specific battery design, assembly, documentation, and requalification

Standardizes a minimum set of qualification and acceptance tests that will satisfy all international safety requirements

Creates standardized reports and reporting formats, improving customer awareness of alternatives for new missions

Requires manufacturer transparency to resolve any issues that affect parts, materials, and processes, or form, fit, and function

Encourages dual-source parts to reduce sole-source, single-source, and foreign-source risks

Establishes standardized cells in the market, stimulating an economy of scale for these products

Preserves trade secrets

Enables quick, new technology transitions into the space market

This document originated in 2016 as a voluntary consensus standard written by Brad Reed, AIAA Associate Fellow, responding to issues in the space battery cell industry raised by commercial and government programs as a result of a Defense Logistics Agency study. This standard does not supersede or cancel any existing specifications, is not solely intended for government adoption in a standards program, and was developed to be compliant with contractual and technical requirements found in international standards.

The AIAA Li-ion Space Cell Commoditization Committee on Standards was assembled in September 2016 and is comprised of over 70 space battery subject matter experts from over 40 international organizations. This committee is chaired by Brad Reed, was pre-approved by the AIAA, and includes government participation compliant to White House OMB Circular A-119, Section 6, “Policy for Federal Participation.”

The initial implementation of the standard has been funded by the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center through a $2.9M grant to prove out the testing methods and procedures. Even before document publication, research and development projects were applied for and funded using the new testing protocol. This paper will detail the standardized test methodologies, the systems and personnel safety reasons behind each test, progress of the new implementation project, the current usage of the new standard, and projected new work.