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Undergrads Construct Cryogenic Star-Tracking Instrument

A team of undergraduates from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) will soon deploy its Cryogenic Star Tracking Attitude Regulation System, a telescope and camera based “compass” for rockets that will orient the payload based on the images of stars. CSTARS uses a new kind of detector technology and will...

19th International Cryocooler Conference

A group of 180 researchers and engineers from 12 countries gathered in San Diego June 20-23 for the 19th International Cryocooler Conference (ICC19), coordinated by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and held at the Town and Country Resort and Convention Center. The conference included a combination of 80 oral...

LIGO Collaboration Prepares Cryogenic Update

In the past year, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) has twice observed gravitational waves from the merger of black holes in deep space. Thermal noise, however, limits how small a motion the system can detect. In order to address this issue, and thus take the next big step in...

SCW Student Scholarship Established

CSA has established the T.H.K. Frederking Space Cryogenics Workshop (SCW) Student Scholarship, an award honoring our first CSA Fellow, Dr. Traugott Frederking, who generously sponsored selected students to attend SCW to help develop their technical maturity by exposing them to current leaders and emerging developments in the field.

Experts Engineer New Cryostat Design Volume

The proper design of cryostats requires knowledge of many disciplines including: cryogenic properties of materials, heat transfer and thermal insulation, instrumentation, safety, structures and seals. One of the best ways to learn about cryostat design is to study the design choices and resulting performance of previous designs. This book provides...

Technifab Restructures, Announces Three Divisions

Technifab Products, Inc. (CSA CSM) has announced organizational changes, segmenting its business into three distinct divisions—Technifab Cryogenics, Technifab CNC Manufacturing and Technifab Cryodewars.

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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...

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...

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...