When NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover went on a spacewalk on February 1, they made an effort of more than a year to replace the aging nickel-hydrogen batteries on the ISS with new lithium-ion models. The International Space Station Program approved the development of lithium-ion batteries to replace the station’s aging power system in 2011. Battery production began in 2014, and the first lithium-ion replacements flew to the station in December aboard JAXA’s Kounotori 6 refueling flight. 2016. Now, four years after that flight and 14 spaceships with 13 different astronauts later, the upgrade is finally complete.
Ground controllers used the Canadarm2 robotic arm to place some of the batteries for installation. Some, however, need additional spaces for the places where the arm could not reach. The batteries are not quite like the lithium-ion we are used to, with their space-grade lithium-ion cells and radiant barrier screen. Since lithium-ion technology has a higher energy density than nickel hydrogen, only 24 new batteries were needed to replace the 48 old batteries.