Power Budget Workflow

This tutorial configures a spacecraft power budget analysis.

Objective

Estimate solar generation, load demand, battery SOC, and power deficits over the scenario interval.

Procedure

1. Create a spacecraft.
2. Add one or more solar arrays.
3. Add one or more batteries.
4. Create a Power Analysis asset.
5. Select spacecraft, solar arrays, and batteries.
6. Add loads.
7. Choose load modes: always on, sunlight only, eclipse only, average duty cycle, or orbit duty cycle.
8. Configure initial SOC and battery policies.
9. Run the analysis.
10. Inspect SOC and deficit plots.

Load Modelling Guidance

Load type	Recommended mode
ADCS baseline	Always on or average duty cycle.
Payload imaging	Orbit duty cycle or sunlight-only if illumination constrained.
Communications pass	Orbit duty cycle for simple periodic operation.
Heaters	Eclipse-only for first-order modelling.
Processor baseline	Always on.

Key Outputs

Output	Interpretation
Net power	Positive means surplus at that sample, negative means load exceeds generation.
Battery SOC	Main health indicator over the mission interval.
Deficit power	Unserved load after battery discharge limits.
Eclipse flags	Explains solar generation drops.