laptop battery news

According to NASA, twelve batteries have been replaced on one of the four solar arrays of the International Space Station.

Six of the 375-pound batteries were replaced last July, with four more going in on May 19th. This past Friday, astronauts Mike Good and Garrett Reisman installed the last of the twelve batteries, taking a total of 2 hours and 40 minutes to make the switch.

The previous 12 batteries, which were worth $3.5 million, had a six-year life expectancy when they were initially installed. NASA was pleasantly surprised however, as the batteries ended up lasting a respectable 10 years. The newly installed batteries are expected to do the same.

So what is it that these multi-million dollar battery systems do exactly?

According to NASA, “When the solar arrays of the International Space Station are in the sun, nickel hydrogen batteries such as the one being demonstrated collect solar energy that is later used to power the Station when it is no longer within the Sun’s “line-of-sight.”

Good and Reisman also installed an ammonia cooling line during Friday’s third and final spacewalk of their mission aboard the shuttle Atlantis. Before the walk, they entered the U.S. Quest airlock aboard the space station for depressurization.

“It’s like standing on your bathroom scale waiting for the needle to go down,” one of astronauts said during an audio feed to NASA.

Computer-giant Hewlett-Packard Co. has announced that they’ve extended a recall of notebook computer batteries after it was found they had the tendency to overheat. It’s important to note, however, that this was not the result of any specific incident.

The affected battery packs were distributed worldwide in a few notebook computers manufactured between August 2007 and May 2008, HP said in a statement Wednesday.

“HP fully stands behind the products it makes and has taken a proactive approach to this situation to ensure the safety of our customers and the integrity and quality of our products,” Xinhua reported quoting the company statement.

Customers with affected products will receive a replacement battery pack for each verified, recalled battery pack at no cost, the statement said.

Electronics leader Toshiba is moving along with its plans to develop lithium-ion batteries for numerous automakers as demand for more environment-friendly cars grows.

With the demand for electronics companies to supply automakers battery systems for electronic and hybrid cars increasing rapidly, it’s expected that the current output of rechargeable batteries will increase five-fold over the next five years.

In response to increasing demand, Toshiba has also announced it will build a new plant in northern Japan, that will be used to produce their new Super Charge ion Battery from 2011.

Toshiba first announced their arrival into the lithium-ion battery for hybrid and all-electric vehicle market last year. Their goal is to make 3 million lithium-ion battery cells a month starting in 2010, with a sales goal of $2.2 billion for their batteries by the year 2015.