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First Instrument Delivered for Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer

The first instrument to fly on ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer, or "Juice," has been delivered for integration onto the spacecraft this month. Juice is the first large-class mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015–2025 program. With launch scheduled in 2022, it will arrive at Jupiter in 2029 to perform detailed...

SpaceX’s Starship SN1 Explodes Under Cryogenic Testing

The SN1 was undergoing liquid nitrogen (LN) testing when clouds of vapor appeared underneath. A split-second later, the system exploded, lifting the whole craft a few meters into the air. The stainless steel LN tank rapidly imploded and released more vapor from the top of the craft. No fire was...

Young Professionals 2020: The Next Generation in Cryogenics Part 1

Young Professionals 2020 Part 1 introduces outstanding young professionals (under 40 years of age) who are doing interesting things in cryogenics and superconductivity and who show promise of making a difference in their fields.

Lancaster Team Tests LEGO® as Superior Sub-Kelvin Insulator

The Ultra Low Temperature Physics Group at Lancaster University in the UK has achieved the record for coldest LEGOs in the universe by cooling the plastic toys to 4 mK in early December. Dr. Dmitry Zmeev and PhD student Joshua Chawner tested the properties of four LEGO blocks and a...

Argonne Upgrades Enable Next-Generation Experiments

Building 203 looks unassuming, but behind—and beneath—its brick exterior, researchers are performing advanced experiments and developing support systems to answer some of physics’ biggest questions. In January, Cold Facts toured the physics building at Argonne National Laboratory (CSA CSM) in Lemont IL to learn more about the ongoing upgrades from...

Clean Energy Future: The Future is Getting Colder

From the developments in cryogenic applications over the last 20 years, we can see that the world in its technological workings is getting colder. But really, the world has been getting colder for the last 150 years as advancements in mastering cold have made steady progress. Liquid air for energy...

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Space Cryogenics

Space cryogenics is, somewhat obviously, the application of cryogenics to space exploration and science. The use of cryogenics in space optimizes the launching of vehicles, provides power and life support to spacecraft and is critical for many scientific observations.Space cryogenics has a number of challenges and has driven both pure...

Exergy

The science of thermodynamics plays a major role in cryogenics. It underlies the various refrigeration cycles, from Carnot to Brayton (Cold Facts Vol. 32 No. 2) and Joule-Thomson, is a fundamental part of the definition of terms such as coefficient of performance (Cold Facts Vol. 31 No. 1) and even...

Cryogenic Treatment

Cryogenic treatment is the process of cooling materials to cryogenic temperatures temporarily to improve their material properties at room temperature. This is distinct from cooling materials down to cryogenic temperatures to take advantage of phenomena such as superconductivity that only occur at cryogenic temperatures. Cryogenic treatment, sometimes also referred to...

Latest in Cryo Central

Cryogenic Electronics

Randall Kirschman, consulting physicist, Mountain View, California ExtElect@gmail.com Cryogenic electronics—the operation of electronic devices, circuits, and systems at cryogenic temperatures—has been a valuable technology for decades. Cryogenic electronics (also referred to as low-temperature electronics, or cold electronics) can be based on semiconductive devices, on superconductive devices, or on a combination...

Particle Physics: High Energy Physics

Cryogenics and High-Energy Physics 1. From symmetry magazine: http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/cms/?pid=1000627: Cryogenics is the study of how materials behave at temperatures near absolute zero. In high-energy particle accelerators, such frigid temperatures reduce the electrical resistance of wires in superconducting magnets, increasing the magnet strength and allowing faster particle acceleration. The same holds...

HTS Degaussing Systems

From the Spring 2009 issue of Cold Facts (Volume 25, Number 2): Thanks to a joint project by the US Navy and a number of industry partners, high temperature superconducting (HTS) technology is now at the heart of an advanced degaussing system aboard the USS Higgins at the naval station...

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

From http://www.superconductors.org: An area where superconductors can perform a life-saving function is in the field of biomagnetism. Doctors need a non-invasive means of determining what’s going on inside the human body. By impinging a strong superconductor-derived magnetic field into the body, hydrogen atoms that exist in the body’s water and...

Latest in Ask the Experts

An Issue of Pressure and Flow Rate in a Supply Tank

Please help solve this problem: A supply tank requires a vaporizer to generate sufficient pressure to pump stored fluid up into a vehicle or tank. The available head is limited as the tank level falls and it is important to minimize the system pressure drop to maintain the desired flow...

Using MLI on VJ Line Joints or Cryo Storage Tanks

When installing Multi Layer Insulation (MLI) blankets on VJ line joints or cryo storage tanks should they be wrapped and tied down tight or loose? These are usually pre-cut to size. Also should they have an access hole at the point of where the molecular sieve is installed to help...

Separated layers of ice over a pipe

I want to know that why there are different layers of ice over a pipe carrying a cryogenic fluid, each layer separated with clear marks / lines? What do these layers signify?

Using nitrogen as a cryogen

Is it possible to achieve -200˚C using nitrogen as a cryogen?

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