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US Increasing overall 2019 NASA Funding

The budget for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate is increasing by 11% in 2019, providing an additional $6.9 billion to current and upcoming projects. Missions to Jupiter’s moon Europa and a new lunar research initiative are among the beneficiaries, each analyzed by the American Institute of Physics.

Astronauts Assemble Tools to Test Space Tech

Technology helps push the development of future human missions to the moon, Mars and beyond. And in order for astronauts to journey farther and live longer, according to NASA, teams will need to store and transfer super-cold liquids used for fuel and life support systems in space.

New Study Reveals When a Superconductor Truly Becomes Super

Unraveling the mystery of superconductivity at high temperatures, specifically in copper oxide materials, remains one of the most puzzling challenges in modern solid-state physics. But new multinational research has confirmed the existence of a copper-oxide-based (or cuprate) phase transition at a temperature close to absolute zero (-273°C).

SPHEREx Mission Selected to Uncover Origins of the Universe

NASA's Astrophysics Explorers Program and associated divisions are moving ahead with a new space mission designed to help astronomers understand both how our universe evolved and how common the ingredients for life are in our galaxy’s planetary systems.

New Ceramic Material Can Better Withstand Extreme Temperatures

UCLA researchers and joint collaborators have created an extremely light and very durable ceramic aerogel, a new material that could be used for applications like insulating spacecraft due to its ability to withstand severe temperature changes encountered on space missions.

CERN Focused on Transforming LHCb and Upgrading ALICE

A period of maintenance and upgrade work is well underway at CERN, part of a technical break called Long Shutdown 2. Planned LS2 projects involve either upgrading or replacing sub-detectors at ALICE, while the Large Hadron Collider team is focused on increasing the proton–proton collision rate at LHCb by a...

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Mixed Refrigerant Cycles

Most cryogenic refrigeration systems, both large scale systems and cryocoolers, use helium as a working fluid. There are a number of advantages to helium, not the least of which is that helium remains a fluid down to the lowest achievable temperatures. In order to freeze helium, pressures of over 20...

Fountain Pumps and He II Phase Separators

Helium II (He II), the second liquid phase of the 4He isotope described in this column in Cold Facts Spring 2010 (http://2csa.us/he2), can be modeled as consisting of two interpenetrating fluids. One, the superfluid component, has zero viscosity and entropy and the other, the normal fluid component, has nonzero viscosity...

Turboexpanders

A vital technology in the refrigerators and liquefiers described in Cold Facts Volume 31 Number 3 is that of turboexpanders. These devices are rotating machines in which the process fluid (e.g., helium) does work against the turboexpander while moving from high pressure to a lower pressure and thus is cooled....

Latest in Cryo Central

Air Separation and Liquefaction

by Nils Tellier, PE, President, EPSIM Corporation (CSA CSM) nils@epsim.us All illustrations courtesy EPSIM Corporation Background History of Air Separation and Liquefaction This section builds on a rich history of methods to develop deep refrigeration and cryogenic liquefaction during the 19th Century. You are encouraged to read Cryo Central’s History...

Bose-Einstein Condensate

A Bose-Einstein condensate, first proposed in 1925 by Albert Einstein based on work done by Satyendra Nath Bose (the same Bose from whom the term boson is derived), is a super-cold state of matter in which almost all of the individual atoms have “condensed” down to the lowest possible quantum...

Cold Technology for Pest Control

While it does not reach temperatures cold enough to be called cryogenic, carbon dioxide snow is at the heart of a new way of dealing with unwanted pests. It utilizes a quick freezing process that takes advantage of the properties of carbon dioxide snow and has a number of benefits...

Cryogenic Finishing

The following 3 articles discuss the uses and procedures of various type of cryogenic finishing. 1) By Robin A. Rhodes, Cryogenic Institute of New England, Inc. rrhodes@nitrofreeze.com Cryogenic Deflashing is employed to remove undesired residual mold flash that remains on molded parts after they are removed or ejected from the...

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