Abstract
At the University of Twente, a breadboard 4.5 K sorption cooler was developed under ESA contract. It has no moving parts and, therefore, is essentially vibration-free. Moreover, it has the potential of a very long life. This cooler is a favorite option for missions such as ESA's Darwin mission, which is a future space interferometer consisting of a few free flying telescopes and a central beam combiner. Because of the optics involved, hardly any vibration can be tolerated. The cooler consists of a hydrogen stage cooling from 80 K to 14.5 K and a helium stage establishing 10 mW at 4.5 K. Both stages use micro-porous activated carbon as the adsorption material. The two cooler stages need 8 W of input power and are heat sunk at two passive radiators at temperatures of about 50 and 80 K. We developed and built a demonstrator of the helium stage. In the paper, the design, realization and tests of this demonstrator cooler are reviewed.
Original language | English |
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Pages | 1613-1620 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 16 Jul 2008 |
Event | 2007 Cryogenic Engineering Conference and International Cryogenic Materials Conference, CEC/ICMC 2007: Transactions of the Cryogenic Engineering Conference - CEC, vol. 53 - Chattanooga Convention Center, Chattanooga, United States Duration: 16 Jul 2007 → 20 Jul 2007 http://www.cec-icmc.org/cec-icmc-2007/ |
Conference
Conference | 2007 Cryogenic Engineering Conference and International Cryogenic Materials Conference, CEC/ICMC 2007 |
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Abbreviated title | CEC/ICMC |
Country/Territory | United States |
City | Chattanooga |
Period | 16/07/07 → 20/07/07 |
Internet address |
Keywords
- METIS-252484