NASA observatory gets new name
NASA has announced that its newest observatory, the Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope, or GLAST, has been renamed the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope, in honor of Professor Enrico Fermi (1901-1954).
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CSA Announces Election Results
Elections for CSA President Elect and Directors as well as a vote on acceptance of the proposed amended CSA Constitution and Bylaws closed on August 8, 2008 at 12:00 pm.
Hypres delivers Digital-RF (TM) receiver systems to ONR
Hypres Inc. has delivered two Digital-RF (TM) receiver systems to the U.S. Department of Defense's Office of Naval Research. The systems will serve as test beds to evaluate Digital-RF technology for wireless communications applications.
Zenergy announces extension of Rheinbach, Germany facility
Zenergy Power plc announced that it will expand its manufacturing facility based in Rheinbach, Germany, allowing the company to accommodate the expected increase in production of its ground-breaking HTS induction heater.
Synchronization of LHC beam transfer system a success
According to R&D Magazine, synchronization of the Large Hadron Collider's beam transfer system was shown to be successful through tests that began on August 8th. These preliminary tests are in preparation for the LHC's official first run on September 10, 2008, which will be webcast at webcast.cern.ch.
CSA Board Member George T. Mulholland dies
Longtime CSA Corporate Sustaining Member and Board Member and Secretary George T. Mulholland, 72, passed away Sunday, August 10, 2008 at Baylor Medical Center in Waxahachie, TX.
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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....
Magnets
From “Superconductivity: Present and Future Applications” by the Coalition for the Commercial Application of Superconductors. Particle physics uses accelerators to recreate the conditions of the early universe in an attempt to piece together the complex puzzle of how we got to where we are today. These huge machines are used...
Energy Storage
From “Superconductivity: Present and Future Applications” by the Coalition for the Commercial Application of Superconductors. With power lines increasingly congested and prone to instability, strategic injection of brief bursts of real power can play a crucial role in maintaining grid reliability. Small-scale Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) systems, based on...
Astronomy
ASTRONOMY IN SPACE by Peter V. Mason, retired, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Visiting Associate, California Institute of Technology. Pmason@alumni.caltech.edu In thinking about the reasons to perform astronomy in space, we first consider the effect of the earth’s atmosphere. On a scale of decreasing energy, gamma rays, cosmic rays, X-rays and...
Cryocoolers
What is a Cryocooler? A mechanism that can extract heat from an object (cooler) and by doing so draw its temperature down below approximately 150 Kelvin (cryo). — (Courtesy Dr. Willy Gully) What is the difference between a Cryocooler and a Cryostat? A cryostat is any device designed to maintain...
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?