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US Increasing overall 2019 NASA Funding

The budget for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate is increasing by 11% in 2019, providing an additional $6.9 billion to current and upcoming projects. Missions to Jupiter’s moon Europa and a new lunar research initiative are among the beneficiaries, each analyzed by the American Institute of Physics.

Astronauts Assemble Tools to Test Space Tech

Technology helps push the development of future human missions to the moon, Mars and beyond. And in order for astronauts to journey farther and live longer, according to NASA, teams will need to store and transfer super-cold liquids used for fuel and life support systems in space.

New Study Reveals When a Superconductor Truly Becomes Super

Unraveling the mystery of superconductivity at high temperatures, specifically in copper oxide materials, remains one of the most puzzling challenges in modern solid-state physics. But new multinational research has confirmed the existence of a copper-oxide-based (or cuprate) phase transition at a temperature close to absolute zero (-273°C).

SPHEREx Mission Selected to Uncover Origins of the Universe

NASA's Astrophysics Explorers Program and associated divisions are moving ahead with a new space mission designed to help astronomers understand both how our universe evolved and how common the ingredients for life are in our galaxy’s planetary systems.

New Ceramic Material Can Better Withstand Extreme Temperatures

UCLA researchers and joint collaborators have created an extremely light and very durable ceramic aerogel, a new material that could be used for applications like insulating spacecraft due to its ability to withstand severe temperature changes encountered on space missions.

CERN Focused on Transforming LHCb and Upgrading ALICE

A period of maintenance and upgrade work is well underway at CERN, part of a technical break called Long Shutdown 2. Planned LS2 projects involve either upgrading or replacing sub-detectors at ALICE, while the Large Hadron Collider team is focused on increasing the proton–proton collision rate at LHCb by a...

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Liquid Hydrogen

Hydrogen becomes a liquid at 20K and 1 bar. Liquid hydrogen (LH2) is an important substance in industry, transportation and research. Industrial uses of hydrogen include applications in the electronics, glass, chemical and metal processing fields. In these applications, the hydrogen is generally used as a room temperature gas but...

Superconducting Radiofrequency Cavities

Superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities represent an important application of cryogenics and superconductivity. SRF cavities are a technology for accelerating charged particle beams via the transfer of radiofrequency (RF) energy to the beams via resonant structures. As such, they are frequently found in large particle accelerators used for scientific research....

Thermal Radiation Shields

Actively cooled thermal radiation shields are a common feature of cryostats whose lowest temperature is less than 77K. These shields, which typically operate at temperatures between that of LN2 and 40K, block thermal radiation from higher temperatures from reaching lower temperature cryogenic components or fluids. Since the heat radiated from...

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....

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...