NASA Space Cryocooler Programs — A 2003 Overview

Abstract

Mechanical cryocoolers represent a significant enabling technology for NASA's Earth and Space Science missions. An overview is presented of ongoing cryocooler activities within NASA in support of current flight projects, near-term flight instruments, and long-term technology development. NASA programs in Earth and space science observe a wide range of phenomena, from crop dynamics to stellar birth. Many of the instruments require cryogenic refrigeration to improve dynamic range, extend wavelength coverage, and enable the use of advanced detectors. Although, the largest utilization of coolers over the last decade has been for instruments operating at medium to high cryogenic temperatures (55 to 150 K), reflecting the relative maturity of the technology at these temperatures, important new developments are now focusing at the lower temperature range from 4 to 20 K in support of studies of the origin of the universe and the search for planets around distant stars. NASA's development of a 20K cryocooler for the European Planck spacecraft and its new Advanced Cryocooler Technology Development Program (ACTDP) for 6-18 K coolers are examples of the thrust to provide low temperature cooling for this class of missions. COOLERS ON NEAR-TERM EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCE MISSIONSIn spring 2002 three new cryocooler systems were launched into space to support NASA missions. Two of the three were based at least partially on the Oxford cooler technology that first flew on the Improved Stratospheric and Mesospheric Sounder (ISAMS) instrument in 1991; this type of cooler has demonstrated multi-year lifetime in orbit, and has been adopted by many long-life instruments to enable new and improved science. The third cooler, the NICMOS cooler, was the first space application of a long-life turbo-Brayton cooler.These recently launched coolers, which are reviewed below, have each now achieved over a year of successful operation in space, adding to the growing number of long-life space coolers enabling the acquisition of important new space-science data. These recent applications build upon the coolers of earlier NASA missions, such as those on the MOPITT, ASTER and Hyperion instruments that have achieved over two years of space operation at this point. 2 Additional coolers, such as the Northrup Grumman (TRW) pulse tube coolers on the TES instrument and the Ball Aerospace Stirling cooler on the HIRDLS instrument, are in the queue for launch aboard NASA missions in early 2004 and are also described below. RHESSI Gamma-Ray SpectrometerLaunched in February 2002, the Ramaty High-Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) uses an array of nine large germanium gamma-ray detectors to observe solar flares from 3 keV to 25 GeV. The detector

Review: far-infrared instrumentation and technological development for the next decade

“…The state-of-the-art for these coolers include those onboard Planck, JWST, and Hitomi (289) . Similar coolers that could achieve 4 K are at TRL 4-5, having been demonstrated as a system in a laboratory environment (290) , or as a variant of a cooler that has a high TRL (JWST/MIRI). Mechanical cryocoolers for higher temperatures have already demonstrated impressive on-orbit reliability ( Table 2).…”

NASA’s Advanced Cryocooler Technology Development Program (ACTDP)

“…Many of the instruments require low-temperature refrigeration to enable use of cryogenic detector technologies to improve dynamic range, or to extend wavelength coverage. Over the last four decades, NASA, often in collaboration with the US Air Force, has funded cryocooler technology development in support of a number of missions [1,2]. The largest utilization of coolers is currently in Earth Science instruments operating at medium to high cryogenic temperatures (50 to 80 ¶K); this reflects the relative maturity of the cryocooler technology at these temperatures.…”

NGST Advanced Cryocooler Technology Development Program (ACTDP) Cooler System

“…During that time NGST continued to develop ACTDP cryo cooler technology for a variety of NASA applications, including JWST, Constellation X, and Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) [1,2,3]. During that time NGST continued to develop ACTDP cryo cooler technology for a variety of NASA applications, including JWST, Constellation X, and Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) [1,2,3].…”