Space-borne 3He refrigerator

Duband, L.; Hui, L.; Lange, A. E.

doi:10.1016/0011-2275(90)90089-u

Cited by 37 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…This ensures that all 10 STPL are gaseous at the time when liquefaction begins. As the pump cools, 3 He gas above the liquid bath will begin to adsorb again, causing a reduction in the vapor pressure of the 3 He bath and, therefore, the temperature of the still [24,25]. A successful fridge cycle results in a 300 mK still temperature with hold times of 3-4 days, although we choose to cycle our fridges more frequently than that (see Sections 3.2 and 4.2).…”

Section: Telescope Architecture and Adsorption Refrigeratorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The thermal design, characterization, and performance of the S pider long-duration balloon cryostat

Gudmundsson

Amiri

Benton³

et al. 2015

Cryogenics

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We describe the Spider flight cryostat, which is designed to cool six millimeter-wavelength telescopes during an Antarctic long-duration balloon flight. The cryostat, one of the largest to have flown on a stratospheric payload, uses liquid 4 He to deliver cooling power to stages at 4.2 and 1.6 K. Stainless steel capillaries facilitate a high flow impedance connection between the main liquid helium tank and a smaller superfluid tank, allowing the latter to operate at 1.6 K as long as there is liquid in the 4.2 K main tank. Each telescope houses a closed cycle 3 He adsorption refrigerator that further cools the focal planes down to 300 mK. Liquid helium vapor from the main tank is routed through heat exchangers that cool radiation shields, providing negative thermal feedback. The system performed successfully during a 17 day flight in the 2014-2015 Antarctic summer. The cryostat had a total hold time of 16.8 days, with 15.9 days occurring during flight.

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Section: Telescope Architecture and Adsorption Refrigeratorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The thermal design, characterization, and performance of the S pider long-duration balloon cryostat

Gudmundsson

Amiri

Benton³

et al. 2015

Cryogenics

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“…For S-Cam3, we rely on a combination cooler from the CEA in Grenoble [13], which consists of a hybrid 4 He-3 He sorption cooler. A picture of this system can be seen in Figure 13.…”

Section: The Cryogenics Coolermentioning

confidence: 99%

Accurate time-resolved optical photospectroscopy with superconducting tunnel junction arrays

et al. 2006

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Superconducting Tunnel Junctions (STJs) have been extensively investigated as photon detectors covering the range from near-infrared to X-ray energies. A 10×12 array of Tantalum/Aluminium junctions has been integrated into the SCam3 camera for ground based astronomy. With this camera, the European Space Agency has performed multiple astronomical observations of optical sources using the William Herschel 4.2m telescope at La Palma and the Agency's 1-m Optical Ground Station telescope at Tenerife. Compared to its predecessor, this new instrument features a 10"×12" field-of-view, an optimized IR rejection reducing baseline noise and increasing optical light throughput and ultra-stable operations. In this paper, we review the instrument's architecture and describe the system's performance and in particular the energy resolution and count-rate capabilities of the detector arrays. Finally, we shall present first astronomical images taken during the Optical Ground Station's 2005 and 2006 campaigns which demonstrate the system's timing, photometric and spectroscopic capabilities.

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“…The detector focal plane is cooled to 250 mK by a 3-stage 4 He/ 3 He/ 3 He sorption refrigerator filled with {32, 16, 2} STP liters of gas, respectively. This design eliminates the convection found in previous multi-stage designs 22 during the condensation phase 23 by putting several bends in the pump tube between the pump and the condensation point (see Figure 3). The fridge requires {4.68, 1.62, 0.41} kJ to cycle the pumps with a power dissipation of {70, 60, 60} mW to sustain the pumps at the end of the condensation phase.…”

Section: Cryostat and 4 He/ 3 He/ 3 He Sorption Refrigeratormentioning

confidence: 99%

The Robinson Gravitational Wave Background Telescope (BICEP): a bolometric large angular scale CMB polarimeter

et al. 2006

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The Robinson Telescope (BICEP) is a ground-based millimeter-wave bolometric array designed to study the polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) and galactic foreground emission. Such measurements probe the energy scale of the inflationary epoch, tighten constraints on cosmological parameters, and verify our current understanding of CMB physics. Robinson consists of a 250-mm aperture refractive telescope that provides an instantaneous field-of-view of 17° with angular resolution of 55´ and 37´ at 100 GHz and 150 GHz, respectively. Fortynine pair of polarization-sensitive bolometers are cooled to 250 mK using a 4 He/ 3 He/ 3 He sorption fridge system, and coupled to incoming radiation via corrugated feed horns. The all-refractive optics is cooled to 4 K to minimize polarization systematics and instrument loading. The fully steerable 3-axis mount is capable of continuous boresight rotation or azimuth scanning at speeds up to 5 deg/s. Robinson has begun its first season of observation at the South Pole. Given the measured performance of the instrument along with the excellent observing environment, Robinson will measure the E-mode polarization with high sensitivity, and probe for the B-modes to unprecedented depths. In this paper we discuss aspects of the instrument design and their scientific motivations, scanning and operational strategies, and the results of initial testing and observations.

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Space-borne 3He refrigerator

Cited by 37 publications

References 10 publications

The thermal design, characterization, and performance of the S pider long-duration balloon cryostat

The thermal design, characterization, and performance of the S pider long-duration balloon cryostat

Accurate time-resolved optical photospectroscopy with superconducting tunnel junction arrays

The Robinson Gravitational Wave Background Telescope (BICEP): a bolometric large angular scale CMB polarimeter

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