New battery types for space vehicles

Engineers from all over the world came to discuss their new developments at the 36/sup th/ Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference (IECEC), held in Savannah, Georgia, USA, July 30 through August 2, 2001. Twenty battery presentations covered topics ranging from powering instruments in oil-well boreholes to supplying energy to instruments on the surface of Mars. Important developments in aerospace batteries are summarized in this article.