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Lunar Regolith Excavation Has No Working Solution — 50 College Robots Compete at Kennedy to Change That

Six weeks after Artemis II’s crewed lunar flyby, the engineering gap blocking a Moon landing goes to the test floor Fifty college teams open three days of autonomous robot trials at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, testing what may be the single most stubborn engineering problem on the path...

Fermilab and Northern Illinois University Expand Quantum Workforce Pipeline with New Academic Initiatives

Fermilab and Northern Illinois University (NIU) have signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to launch a specialized Master of Science in Physics program focused on quantum science and technology. The inaugural class is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2026, with students transitioning to hands-on research at...

Bluefors Joins Chicago Quantum Exchange

Bluefors has joined the Chicago Quantum Exchange, strengthening CQE’s Midwest roots as the region expands efforts to build a quantum supply chain, expand innovation capacity, and scale a quantum workforce. Bluefors plays a vital role in all three areas. We opened our first US-based Bluefors Lab in Chicago last year,...

NASA Set to Test Orbital ‘Gas Station’ Technology to Propel Moon and Mars Missions

NASA’s LOXSAT mission aims to test orbital fuel transfer, potentially turning spacecraft into “gas stations in space” for lunar and Mars missions. A groundbreaking NASA mission could soon transform how astronauts travel to the moon and beyond. The upcoming Liquid Oxygen Flight Demonstration (LOXSAT) will test critical technologies for storing...

AI has a power delivery problem. Superconductivity offers a path forward

AI is changing what power delivery must do, and new approaches are required Growing AI energy demand is not only forcing data centers to address generation challenges, but also how power is delivered. As power density rises and timelines tighten, high-temperature superconductors (HTS, also known simply as superconductors) are moving...

Molecular Qubit Achieves Single-Photon Quantum Control

A team of researchers report a single organic molecule can now store, manipulate and read out quantum information one molecule at a time using light. They add that their work hints at a possible new quantum modality built from chemically engineered molecules rather than fabricated semiconductor defects. The study, published...

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

Magnetic Levitation

From http://www.superconductors.org. Magnetic-levitation is an application where superconductors perform extremely well. Transport vehicles such as trains can be made to “float” on strong superconducting magnets, virtually eliminating friction between the train and its tracks. Not only would conventional electromagnets waste much of the electrical energy as heat, they would have...

Superconductivity

From Superpower website. History of Superconductivity Superconductivity was discovered in 1911 by the Dutch physicist, Heike Kammerlingh Onnes when he was able to liquefy helium by cooling it to 4 Kelvin, or -452°F. This enabled him to cool other materials close to absolute zero and investigate their electrical properties. He...

Medical Applications of Cryogenics

Neutron Therapy Cryogenics is at the heart of nuclear accelerators. Accelerators such as Fermilab’s Tevatron make neutron therapy for cancer possible. From Fermilab Today 4/20/09: Fermilab currently offers neutron therapy. But staff at Fermilab designed and built the proton accelerator used by the nation’s first hospital-based treatment center to use...

Nuclear Physics

Al Zeller National Superconducting Cyclotron Lab (NSCL) at Michigan State University zeller@nscl.msu.edu Cryogenics has a long history in nuclear physics. The technology has its origins in the use of cold traps for maintaining a vacuum, which is required to prevent beam loss and for generating high voltages used in acceleration....

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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