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NASA extends Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne’s contract

NASA awarded a contract extension to Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, a United Technologies Corp. company. The extension will allow the company to continue development of the Common Extensible Cryogenic Engine (CECE), in an effort to support future lunar landing development.

Aqua Cure Ltd. awarded contract by US Air Force

Aqua Cure Ltd., Buffalo NY, has been awarded a $131,430 contract by the US Air Force for cryogenic vaporizers.

Hydrogen rocket technologies prepare for lift-off

An engine which is fueled by a mix of liquid oxygen and hydrogen has been developed to demonstrate advanced rocket technologies for future space vehicles, such as lunar vehicles, and has achieved a technical milestone in throttling capability.

Drell appointed acting director at SLAC

Persis Drell has been appointed acting director at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC); she was formerly deputy director. She succeeds Jonathan Dorfan who becomes assistant to the president, focusing on the relationship between Stanford University and SLAC.

Norman R. Augustine speaks at AAAS meeting

During the AAAS meeting held on February 18, 2008, Norman R. Augustine shared some challenging and interesting insight into the alarming state of science and technology research and education in the United States.

Tevatron sets a new record

The Tevatron set a new record on Monday, March 17, 2008 when it produced more particle collisions per second than ever before. Breaking the barrier of 3E32 for the first time, the Tevatron reached a record peak luminosity of 3.15 E32 cm^ -2 sec^ -1. The record came on the...

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Two-Phase Flows

Two-phase flows are those flows in which there is a mixture of two physical states (solid, liquid or vapor). In cryogenic applications, such flows are almost always a mixture of a cryogenic liquid along with its corresponding vapor. A mixture of liquid helium and helium vapor would be a typical...

Supercritical Fluids

A supercritical fluid is defined as a substance whose temperature and pressure exceed those of its critical point. Every pure substance has a critical point that is defined in thermodynamic space by a critical temperature and a corresponding critical pressure. For example, the critical point for helium has a critical...

Brayton Cycle

The Brayton cycle is one of the many thermodynamic cycles used to generate cooling at cryogenic temperatures. Strictly speaking, when referring to cooling we should call this the reverse Brayton cycle as the original Brayton cycle describes the process of power generation or propulsion via a gas turbine. In many...

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...

Latest in Ask the Experts

Power usage: cryogenic systems vs. regular refrigerators

A recent project highlighted to me that closed cycle cryogenic cooling systems use far more electrical power to reduce temperatures by a few watts than regular refrigerators. I am sure it must be something to do with the extra difficulty of removing the heat from the liquid nitrogen or similar...

Redundancy strategies for mechanical -80C freezers

I was wondering what kind of redundancy strategies are people using for their mechanical -80C freezers? I am aware of the following. Please add if you are doing something different. 1) 1 Backup freezer for every 10 freezers – Empty and maintained at -80C at all times 2) Backup C02...

Safety guidelines for handling cryo vessels of nitrogen

I am looking for any safety guidelines for handling cryogenic vessels of nitrogen indoors and outdoors. I am especially interested in recommendations for area monitors to detect leaks, flow detection devices, etc.

Method to move components in a cryogenic environment

Does anyone know of a method with which to reliably move components in a cryogenic environment? We are interested in moving detectors in a cryogenically cooled (2K) vacuum chamber, which is contained within a larger cryostat/isolation vacuum with thermal shields. As the desired horizontal or vertical displacement is between 10...

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