Cold Facts Digital – The go-to place for Cryogenics and Superconductivity

“Gas stations” in Zero Gravity

To journey and return from other planets, future spacecraft may have to do something they’ve never done before: refuel in space. Thanks to a Purdue University experiment, scientists are now beginning to understand how cryogenic liquids behave in zero-gravity, and how this affects the future operation of propellant depots in...

Journey of the Maglev

In early January 2022, a prototype mag- lev train was rolled out in southwest China’s city of Chengdu, one of the latest developments in magnetic levitation trains. The domestically developed locomotive uses high temperature superconducting and will travel with a designed speed of 620 km/h, according to Southwest Jiaotong University,...

The GigaSphere: Game Changer for Next Generation of Clean Energy

Large spheres have been used to store liquid hydrogen for decades. In fact, two 3,218 cubic meter (850,000 gallon) liquid hydrogen storage spheres have supported space flight pro- grams at the Kennedy Space Center since the mid-1960s. Currently, NASA plans to use the latest and largest liquid hydro- gen tank ever...

Eta Space Develops Cryogenic Propellant Depots for Earth and Space

Eta Space, a new space company dedicated to developing advanced cryogenic systems for the modern space and energy age, is celebrating its three-year anniversary in June with milestones scheduled for several key projects. Eta Space is developing LOXSAT, a 135 kg demonstration satellite designed to test critical cryogenic fluid management (CFM) technologies...

Penflex Controls Pressure at the Intersection of Vacuum and Cryogenic Sciences

Vacuum technologies have advanced the field of cryogenics, allowing researchers to push the frontiers of what we know and businesses to apply that knowledge and drive innovation across a wide range of industries. The intersection of vacuum and cryogenic sciences is a demanding one. Pressure and temperature requirements create a...

Space Cryogenics: The ECOSTRESS Instrument After Four Years in Space

The instrument is approaching four years of operation in space, with its over- all thermal performance as predicted and no changes to cryocooler performance. To date, all three cryocoolers have accumulated over 32,000 operating hours. On the 210th day after the initial power-on, a fault condition was detected, and the...

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

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...

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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