Beacon Power R&D contract for space application

[skids]

Personally I'd rather see them working full-bore on scaling up production of their ground-based power storage solutions. Fortunately it's a small contract and won't effect their core focus for now. This does tend to happen in the power industry -- companies working on the energy problem get coopted into spaceflight endeavors, or companies working on small cogen solutions get sucked into large scale power company projects.

The contract, valued at $750,000, is for the preliminary design of a space-based flywheel energy storage system for satellite applications, and is a Phase II award under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Technology. Beacon announced completion of an associated Phase I project earlier this year.

...

Flywheel energy storage systems have the potential to be used in a variety of space-based applications, including providing power to low-earth-orbit satellites during the 30 minutes these satellites orbit in darkness and their solar panels cannot provide power. Compared to electro-chemical (battery) alternatives, a flywheel-based system is expected to be more reliable, have a much longer life, be able to be charged and discharged constantly, and deliver higher performance even under extreme temperatures - all significant advantages for space applications.

http://news.morningstar.com/news/BW/M10/D10/20051010005525.html