Electrovaya Sets Sights on Final Frontier

Electrovaya, Inc., the Mississauga, Ontario-based maker of specialty batteries, received a $2.95 million contract with NASA to make the batteries that power astronaut suits during space walks.

Sankar Das Gupta, Electrovaya’s co-founder, chairman, president, and CEO said, “To be powering them is one of the most mission-critical applications you can imagine. We’re really humbled they have chosen us.”

“My requirements are very similar to the guy running his laptop,” says Eric Darcy, lead engineer with NASA’s battery group at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. “He wants long life, long run time and reliability.”

Right now, astronauts use batteries made with silver-zinc chemistry to power spacesuits. The technology has been around for 20 years or so and has served NASA well, but a silver-zinc battery generates hydrogen gas that must be vented every so often. This means the battery is not sealed and could pose a danger if it leaks in space.

Electrovaya says its proprietary lithium-ion SuperPolymer rechargeable battery technology has the highest energy density of any commercial battery on the market. The batteries can be found in the Canadian company’s Scribbler line of tablet PCs, as well as in its original product, Powerpads, extended-life portable batteries for notebook computers.