Micro Power Supplies Custom Battery Packs for Defibrillator on International Space Station

Micro Power, the global leader in portable power systems for mission-critical equipment, today announced that it manufactured a custom lithium battery pack specifically for an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) to be implemented aboard the International Space Station that was launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) aboard space shuttle Discovery on May 31, 2008.

The primary battery pack is a variant of an existing pack already manufactured by Micro Power for a leading AED manufacturer, and was customized to comply with space flight requirements. NASA rigorously tested and approved the battery packs to ensure they would perform to space flight specifications for batteries.

“Of course, it is our hope that the defibrillator is never used during any space station mission, but should a cardiac arrest emergency arise, the Micro Power battery pack is designed to power up safely the first time, and to provide enough power to save a life in this unique, on-board environment,” said Jeff VanZwol, marketing manager for Micro Power.

In addition to transporting two battery packs to the International Space Station to support an AED previously positioned on an earlier flight, the shuttle Discovery’s 14-day flight carried the largest payload so far to the International Space Station and supported three spacewalks.

Micro Power is a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) registered and ISO 9001/13485 certified supplier of custom battery systems for portable mission-critical equipment. The company serves the portable medical equipment markets, Automatic Identification and Data Collection (AIDC) markets and commercial military markets. The company’s battery systems power close to 70 percent of all portable Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) in the market today.