Conveners
C4Or1C - Aerospace Applications - Exploring the Universe
- Jacob Leachman (Washington State University)
- Wesley Johnson (NASA / GSFC)
Origins is a Mid IR to Far IR Astrophysics Flagship (multi-$B) Mission that has been studied over the last 2 years by NASA for potential flight in the mid 2030’s. The wavelength range of interest for this mission is 3 to 600 microns, with an objective of having a noise floor of the sky background for this range. This means cooling the telescope to nearly 4 K. The telescope size/collecting...
The RESOLVE instrument on the upcoming XRISM mission is a rebuild of the SXS instrument that successfully demonstrated high resolution X-ray spectroscopy on the Hitomi mission using a microcalorimeter array at 50 mK. As with SXS, the RESOLVE instrument requires High Temperature Superconductor (HTS) lead assemblies to carry high current to the Adiabatic Demagnetization Refrigerator (ADR) while...
J. Cha, B. Carroll, J. Rodriguez, K. Maynard, M. Romero
The ECOSystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) instrument, launched on June 28, 2018, has completed six months of operation in space. ECOSTRESS is a multispectral thermal infrared imaging spectrometer and its primary mission is to investigate and understand how climate change affects water and carbon...
Absolut System is building a 40K vibration-free cooler for ESA earth observation program. This application required small cooling power in the 40K temperature range but extremely low exported vibration level, high efficiency and mass competitive technology.
In addition, a scale-up of the product is on-going to offer a lightweight solution for superconducting motors for hybrid-electric...
Current proposed NASA missions to Moon and Mars involve producing cryogenic propellant in-situ to reduce launch mass and requirements. One technique for liquefaction of the gases produced through electrochemical processes is to circulate cold gaseous neon or helium through broad area cooling tubes attached to the outside of the propellant tanks. To determine the performance of this...
The implementation of polymer films as cryogenic propellant bladders could mitigate sloshing in a microgravity environment. However, prior research into cryogenic bladders was discontinued in the 1970s due to reportedly high permeabilities of hydrogen and helium through polymer films at cryogenic temperatures. These permeabilities differed from the Arrhenius relation by increasing as...
Earth’s Moon harbors valuable water ice deposits within the permanently shadowed regions (PSR) of craters and possibly other geological features. Of primary value in the water are the molecular hydrogen and oxygen constituents useful as spacecraft propellants, fuels to generate power, and life support to enable mankind’s further exploration of the solar system and beyond. Acquiring the water...
