This is a list of spacecraft powered by non-rechargeable batteries. While most spacecraft are powered by longer-lasting power sources such as solar cells or radioisotope thermoelectric generators, which can provide power for years to decades, some have been powered by primary (non-rechargeable) electrochemical cells, which provide runtimes of minutes to months. This is typically done only on spacecraft that are planned to operate for only a short time, even if they must travel for a long time before being activated. Some spacecraft classes where this applies are atmospheric probes, short-duration landers, and technology demonstrators. Some early Earth satellites, such as the first Sputnik and Explorer satellites, also used primary batteries, before solar panels were widely adopted.
| Year | Spacecraft | Role | Battery life | Type of Battery | Parent | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Scientific landers (2) | 1–3 days (planned) | Lithium–thionyl chloride[1] | Mars Polar Lander | Impact landers for Mars, lost during EDL | ||
| 2016 | Technology demonstration lander | 2–8 Martian sols (planned)[2] | ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter | Lander for Mars, lost during EDL but considered a successful demo | |||
| 1958 | Scientific satellite | 111 days (actual) | Zinc–mercury oxide (Zn–HgO)[3] | Earth/space science[4] | |||
| 1960 | Scientific satellite | 54 days (actual) | Mercury[5] | Earth science: ionospheric properties and micrometeorites | |||
| 1966 | Explorer 17 (AE-A) | Scientific satellite | 98 days (actual) | Earth science: upper atmospheric properties | |||
| 1995 | Galileo Probe | Scientific atmospheric probe | >57 or 78 minutes after entry (actual, due to overheating)≥61.4 minutes after entry, 6 hours after waking up (planned)[6] [7] | Lithium–sulfur dioxide[8] Ca/CaCrO4 thermal (to fire pyrotechnics)[9] | Galileo | Atmospheric entry into Jupiter | |
| 2004 | Huygens | Scientific atmospheric probe | 153 minutes or ≤3 hours (planned) | Lithium–sulfur dioxide[10] | Cassini | Landed on Saturn's moon Titan | |
| 1959 | Scientific lunar impactor (planned); scientific lunar flyby probe (actual) | (closest lunar approach was 34 hours after launch) | Silver–zinc, mercury oxide[11] | Intended to crash into the Moon but missed. Performed lunar flyby instead. Now derelict in heliocentric orbit | |||
| 1959 | Luna 2 | Scientific lunar impactor | >1 day, 14 hours, 22 minutes, 42 seconds (actual, from launch to impact)[12] | Succeeded in impacting the Moon, where Luna 1 had failed | |||
| 1966 | Luna 10 | Scientific lunar orbiter | 219 transmissions over 460 orbits (actual) | Studied radiation, fields, particles, meteorites, gravity[13] | |||
| 1966 | Luna 11 | Scientific lunar orbiter | 137 transmissions over 277 orbits (actual) | Lunar orbit[14] | |||
| 1976 | Luna 24 | Scientific lunar lander with sample return | [15] | ||||
| 2018 | MASCOT | Scientific rover | >17 hours (actual)<17 hours (planned)[16] | Hayabusa2 | Hopping rover that landed on asteroid 162173 Ryugu | ||
| 2022 | Lunar Excursion Vehicle (LEV-1) | Technology demonstration | 1-14 days (planned) | Lunar surface rover, demonstration of crewed lunar vehicle's wheels | |||
| 1972 | Mars 2 and 3 landers | Scientific landers with tethered rovers (1 each) | Mars 2 and 3 orbiters | Rovers were ski walking type and were not deployed due to lander failures[17] | |||
| 1961 | Mercury-Scout 1 | Technical satellite | 18.5 hours (planned)[18] | Launch failure | |||
| 1959 | Pioneer 4 | Scientific lunar flyby probe | 3 days, 10 hours | Mercury[19] | Derelict in heliocentric orbit | ||
| 1978 | Pioneer Venus Multiprobe | Scientific atmospheric probes (1 large, 3 small) | >54 minutes (Large Probe actual)>53 minutes (North Probe actual) 123 minutes (Day Probe actual) >56 minutes (Night Probe actual) | Silver–zinc (AgZn)[20] | Pioneer Venus Bus | Atmospheric entry into Venus. Day Probe survived impact and presumably died due to battery exhaustion. There was also a solar-powered bus that entered the atmosphere along with the probes | |
| 1989 | Phobos Hopper (Prop-F) | Scientific lander | 3 hours (planned) | Phobos 2 | Hopping lander for Phobos. Phobos 2 was lost en route to Phobos due to computer failure | ||
| 1957 | Sputnik | Technology demonstration satellite | 22 days/326 orbits (actual)[21] | Silver–zinc (AgZn)[22] | Earth satellite | ||
| 2006 | SuitSat-1 | Technical/commemorative satellite | between 2 orbits/~3 hours and 15 days (actual) | ISS | Earth satellite | ||
| 1966–1969 | Venera atmospheric probes | Scientific atmospheric probes | >53 minutes (Venera 5 actual)>51 minutes (Venera 6 actual) | Veneras 3–6 were atmospheric probes. Venera 3 failed upon entry. Venera 4 failed during descent due to overpressure. Veneras 5 and 6 were originally planned as landers, but changed to atmospheric probes due to learning about Venus's atmospheric pressure. Their parachutes were shrunk to increase descent speed, so as to reach crush depth before battery exhaustion | |||
| 1970, 1972 | Venera 7 and 8 landers | Scientific landers | 58 minutes total (Venera 7 actual)[23] >50 minutes after landing (Venera 8 actual, until failure due to environmental conditions) greater than up to 127 minutes (actual) | Venera 8–14 buses | Most Venera landers' relay craft passed out of radio link range/geometry before the landers overheated or ran out of battery energy, rather than data return duration being limited by overheating as is commonly believed | ||
| 1975–1982 | Venera 9 to 14 landers | Scientific landers | >53 minutes after landing (Venera 9 actual)>65 minutes after landing (Venera 10 actual) >95 minutes after landing (Venera 11 actual) >110 minutes after landing (Venera 12 actual) >127 minutes after landing (Venera 13 actual) >57 minutes after landing (Venera 14 actual) 30 minutes after landing (Venera 9–12 planned) 32 minutes after landing (Venera 13 and 14 planned) | ||||
| 1985 | Vega 1 and 2 landers | Scientific landers | Vega 1 and 2 buses | ||||
| 1985 | Vega 1 and 2 balloons | Scientific balloon aerobots | 48–52 hours (expected) | Lithium[24] | |||
| 2022 | SORA-Q Transformable Lunar Robot[25] | Lunar rover | Two hours[26] | Lithium[27] | Hakuto-R Mission 1 lander | Lost with Hakuto-R's failed landing. | |
| 2024 | SLIM | Imaged SLIM. | |||||
| 2019, 2020, 2021, 2024 | Deployable camera, EagleCam | Cameras | <1 day | Tianwen-1, Hayabusa2, IM-1 | Imaging main spacecraft. |
| Solar[28] | Lunar landing (1966) | |||
| Lithium-thionyl chloride (LiSOCL2)[29] | Solar | Roved Mars (1997) | ||
| - | Silver-Zinc[30] | Solar (Experiment) | Earth satellite | |
| Philae | Rosetta | Lithium-thionyl chloride (LiSOCl2) (900 W*h) Lithiu-ion (Li-ion) (100 W*h) | Solar | Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (2014)[31] |
| Mercury[32] | Earth satellite (1958) | |||