Original poster: Jim Lux <jimlux@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> At 09:31 PM 4/26/2007, Tesla list wrote:
Original poster: "David Rieben" <drieben@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Hi Phil, Jim, Although I didn't know about the ISS using 120 VDC exclusively, I would guess that it is much simpler to generate straigth DC from those giant solar cells than to have to invert the generated DC to AC before being able to use it. Just a guess though ;^)
Actually, if you consider the PWM converters making AC.. there's a fair amount of DC/AC/DC conversion on a spacecraft. A lot of the AC is also used to get galvanic isolation (yep, when you've got to isolate kilowatts, there's nothing like a big transformer to help... but a tesla coiler knows that.. eh?