Where electricity from the ISS?

International Space Station, of course, cannot work normally without the help from Earth. Cargo and transport ships deliver everything you need here. But if we talk about electricity, then in this plan ISS is completely autonomous. The only source of energy for a huge orbital complex is the sun.

Power supply station is one of the examples of international cooperation on the ISS. For the normal operation of this unique space laboratory, the interaction of all countries – participants in flight. And first of all, of course, Russia and the United States.

The station is moving in orbit, and during this time its angular position changes. And solar panels must track the sun and change the position – that is, it is always at 90 ° to the sun rays. Is engaged in this case the system of orientation of solar panels. It works from special Sun control sensors or from the motion control system and navigation. In extreme cases, the crew has the opportunity to exhibit the desired position of the solar batteries manually using a special program on the laptop. The system is quite simple and reliable. The total energy of all batteries of the station – and our, and American – allows you to feed the station completely. And even there is a small stock. As for the area of ​​solar panels – this is a small such football field that flies together with the station.