@DJCliffy 368717 wrote:

Did they find ice there in the end though?

Not too sure mate, after it happened we heard not a lot else… I would assume that if it hasn’t been mentioned in the news they haven’t, apparently there was a awful lot of data for them to process so it could still happen.

@General Lighting 368771 wrote:

it would be normal for clients such as NASA to audit the staff of their supplies. Hell, I do it for my work purchases if I can, so I can try if possible to give business to people with progressive political/business views who look after the environment…

Yeah it got me nervous at first as I had a few questions asked about me and I had to fill out a few forms with a lot of personal info, it cant be that bad though as the place is like a bloody zoo… all sorts of people working there, a very diverse work force…

Midget, transsexual, Jordanians, German, Spanish, American, Muslims, Hindus, the young, the old (very old), dyslexic bloke (he is our top engineer) this is in a small building with a total of about 60 people.. on my first day when I met people as they arrived I was waiting for a joke to start :laugh_at:

@General Lighting 368810 wrote:

sounds a bit like most high tech companies (like the one I worked for a decade ago outside Reading). Its usually all one big happy family when business is good but if things stop going as well have a escape route planned (it would be difficult to wreck a business like that when demand for these batteries is really high, but sadly you can’t put anything past managers these days)

It is just like that, a very pleasant place to work..

I think things should be safe for the time being, we are frantically recruiting as we have just landed some very big contracts for constellations of satellites, our order books are full for the next few years as well (we have just got into the motor sport side of it with the new KERS systems).

But I have ensured I have other plans, I get sent out to do a lot of testing with other companies in the space industry so I have got a few contacts in my neck of the woods if things go wrong…. if not back to being a chef :hopeless:

@General Lighting 368813 wrote:

its the batteries which are the growth industry IMO. Few can afford a spacecraft, but more and more people are starting to ride electric bikes (they are now more popular than pushbikes in Holland) and these depend on having decent lithium-ion batteries with high discharge capability and long service life…..

Lithium Ion batteries have a very good service life, we have a very small vacuum chamber that has had a Sony 18650 cell sat in it for over10 years (the company I work for patented a cathode that allowed the cells to be mass produced and then licensed this out to Sony). We produced the first ever lithium battery launched into space, a lot of the missions we have powered keep getting extended.

They are also a lot safer than people believe, I have had to do abusive testing and destructive parts analysis and I am yet to get one to explode. One went off like a rocket but that was very over charged and I cut it open in a very humid environment.

They got a lot of bad press when the sony laptop batteries were catching fire but I am sure this is down to the cell but more to the charging/discharging systems as that is the only reasons we have ever had issues with them.

@General Lighting 368823 wrote:

Depends on the service conditions. on e-bikes they are subject to varying and sometimes very high peak current loads and often discharged to 10/20% of capacity, and every manufacturer only seems to get about 2 years service life out of them..

Ah the level of discharge can seriously damage them, they seem to last better when they are not discharged too deeply. Typical Li-ion cells are 4.2v when fully charged and the lowest they should go down to is 2.5v and stored at 3v (this stops capacity fade, well makes it about 1% for every year that they are stored). However temperatures can have an effect on this and seriously diminish this life of them, store them too hot/cold and at a high voltage the life can go down by about 30% of the capacity a year.

What will also cause the problems is how well the individual cells are matched, we match every cell 10mah of each other to give them the longest service life possible. Too much and one cell may die prematurely which then stresses the rest of them.

I can see how with the e-bikes storing the cells in their ideal conditions just isn’t practical, I have been testing some prototype cells that have different chemistries and mechanical properties that seem to be making them more resilient to being used and stored in less than ideal conditions… I can see this being a god send for laptops/ebikes and the likes that use li-ion, just got to wait for the technology to filter through to consumer products