Design of the Electrical Power System for the ESTCube-1 Satellite

In this work, the design of the electrical power system developed for ESTCube-1 – the first Estonian satellite with the first test mission of electric solar wind sail – is presented. The mission is highly energy-intensive, and, since its complexity might lead to many possible failure cases, it requires a very efficient and fault-tolerant solution. The system has been developed from ground up, using only commercial-off-the-shelf components and student workforce. It includes several innovations, which help the system to be more reliable, efficient and controllable than earlier nanosatellite power system designs.