week two, friday afternoon lecture

After lunch Professor Jim gave a lecture on the Bench Power Supply. The first thing we learned that the bench power supply has a voltage range from 0-15V, load should be "a few hundred mA," and that the hold output be put within a few tenths of the voltage. Next he spoke on the Photovoltaic panel (solar panel) and their relevance in our flight payload. As long as the sun is shining the Photovoltaic panel can deliver enough energy to power our payload so this is a strong possibility. In addition we learned that each power cell produces .5 volts (approximately). A few of the concerns with this idea were that the payloads are going to be rotating, and the photovoltaic panel must be facing the sun. The next option was a Thermoelectric generator, this idea was improbable because the Seebeck effect (convert a temperature to energy) to power the generator. Finally we the simple battery was proposed as a possible power source. This idea is most efficient because it is inexpensive, reasonably lightweight, and it has a variety of voltages which we will need for our fligh payload.