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Tutorial — Power budget

Goal: check whether solar arrays and batteries can support a load profile over several orbits.

You will create

  1. Spacecraft with realistic orbit & attitude
  2. Solar array panel(s)
  3. Battery pack(s)
  4. Power analysis with loads
  5. SOC / power-balance plots in Reporting

Steps

1. Bus setup

  1. Add spacecraft; set orbit (LEO) and attitude (e.g. nadir or sun-tracking context as needed).
  2. On Power, add at least one solar array (area + efficiency).
  3. On Battery, add a pack with usable capacity.
  4. Apply + refresh.

2. Power analysis

  1. Add Power Analysis; select the spacecraft and participating arrays/batteries.
  2. Choose solar flux mode; keep eclipse and incidence enabled for realism.
  3. Define loads (bus always-on + payload modes with priorities).
  4. Set analysis step; Run.
Figure placeholder Power analysis loads editor
Save as docs/resources/images/tutorials/power-loads.png

3. Reporting

Generate Battery SOC, Power Balance, and Power Shortfall Summary from the Power analysis asset.

Checkpoint

SOC stays above your policy floor across the interval, or shortfall intervals clearly explain where loads exceed generation + battery.

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