Cold Facts Digital – Page 61 – The go-to place for Cryogenics and Superconductivity

NASA Inches Closer to Martian Laser Communication

by Charlie Danaher, Danaher Cryogenics Bridging Interplanetary Distances Having a conversation between someone on Earth and Mars is not as science fiction as it used to be. That is thanks to scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California and their successful demonstration of the Deep Space Optical...

Vacuum Chambers Answer Quantum Demands and UHV Transfer Needs

by Mel Janecka, Atlas Technologies Quantum computing companies and research facilities often find aluminum and titanium vacuum chambers to be better equipped to maintain purity and ultrahigh-vacuum (UHV) status. Plus, the chambers are non-magnetic and perform effectively within cryogenic conditions, critical for keeping qubits stable. Qubits, the basic units of...

Kathleen Amm’s Evolution in Cryo

When Kathleen Amm describes how she entered cryogenics, she does not point to a single defining moment. Instead, her path began with movement. In the early 1990s, she followed her thesis advisor Justin Schwartz from the University of Illinois to Tallahassee as the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory was opening....

WOMEN in CRYOGENICS and SUPERCONDUCTIVITY

Alexandria Burger, Bluefors – Manufacturing Engineer Manager Current projects: My current focus is leading a team to improve manufacturing efficiencies for 2026. These efficiency improvements will not only offset the increasing costs of materials but also allow us to reduce lead times. I also contribute to manufacturing documentation, 6S events,...

HiLumi LHC: cryogenics equipment arrives underground

By Corinne Pralavorio The vertiginous descent of equipment into the depths of the accelerator tunnels is always a captivating event. The stars of the show over the last few weeks have been the two gleaming cold boxes that have arrived in the new service tunnels of the High-Luminosity LHC (HiLumi...

Leiden Cryogenics Partners with OrangeQS for Development of Compact Dilution Refrigerator

Leiden Cryogenics has built a prototype compact dilution refrigerator, dubbed Quper, that can achieve millikelvin temperatures. Developed by the Dutch company in partnership with quantum chip testing startup Orange Quantum Systems (OrangeQS), the tabletop system has an inverted fridge design and can cool samples below 25 millikelvin before returning to...

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Space Cryogenics

Space cryogenics is, somewhat obviously, the application of cryogenics to space exploration and science. The use of cryogenics in space optimizes the launching of vehicles, provides power and life support to spacecraft and is critical for many scientific observations.Space cryogenics has a number of challenges and has driven both pure...

Exergy

The science of thermodynamics plays a major role in cryogenics. It underlies the various refrigeration cycles, from Carnot to Brayton (Cold Facts Vol. 32 No. 2) and Joule-Thomson, is a fundamental part of the definition of terms such as coefficient of performance (Cold Facts Vol. 31 No. 1) and even...

Cryogenic Treatment

Cryogenic treatment is the process of cooling materials to cryogenic temperatures temporarily to improve their material properties at room temperature. This is distinct from cooling materials down to cryogenic temperatures to take advantage of phenomena such as superconductivity that only occur at cryogenic temperatures. Cryogenic treatment, sometimes also referred to...

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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