General Eisenhower began the Space Race when he announced plans to launch the world’s first artificial satellite, the Moon being our only natural one. The Russians were having none of it. I remember standing in the garden in my dressing gown in 1957 watching a ‘new star’ containing the first batteries in space crossing the horizon.
Sputnik was the simplest of inventions! It comprised two steel hemispheres joined with 38 bolts making a ball slightly less than two feet in diameter. Two pairs of antennae several times that height completed a ‘friendly little fella’ we fell in love with, but gave the American military sleepless nights.
The Equipment Powered by Silver-Zinc Batteries
Sputnik contained a radio transmitter, a remote switch, a thermal control system, a barometric switch, and three silver-zinc batteries inside the silver ball.
The silver-zinc batteries were by the largest and heaviest component. Please do not ask about electronics. We did not even have transistor radios.
The satellite sent out radio beeps for 22 days before the silver-zinc batteries ran out. Two of these powered the radio, while the third one was responsible for temperature control.
The Brain Behind the First Batteries in Space
Silver-zinc batteries deliver one of the highest specific energies of all electrochemical power sources. The ones in Sputnik were the brainchild of Nikolai S. Lidorenko of the All-Union Research Institute of Current Sources. He went on to create the foundations for the Soviet photovoltaic industry. In 1958, the third Soviet satellite received its power from the sun, after which this became the standard.
Sputnik 1 fell from grace on 4 January 1958 as it fell from orbit, and entered the atmosphere in an all-consuming ball of fire.
With it went the first batteries in space and every other part of the remarkable invention.
Only one vestige of it remains. The metal arming ring that prevented contact between the first batteries in space and the radio transmitter they powered, until the final moment before the launch.
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