Development of mechanical cryocoolers for Astro-H/SXS.

Author(s) : SATO Y., SUGITA H., MITSUDA K.

Summary

The soft X-ray spectrometer (SXS) is a high-resolution spectrometer with an X-ray micro-calorimeter array onboard the Japanese X-ray astronomy satellite Astro-H, planned for launch in 2013. The micro-calorimeter is operated at cryogenic temperature of 50 mK provided by the adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator (ADR) with a heat sink of 1.3 K liquid helium stored in the SXS Dewar. To extend the liquid helium lifetime to over 3 years in orbit, two types of mechanical cryocoolers are installed: 20 K-class double-staged Stirling (2ST) coolers and a 1 K-class Joule-Thomson (JT) cooler. Improvement of mechanical cryocoolers has been investigated and verified for higher reliability and cooling performance. The engineering model (EM) of upgraded mechanical cryocoolers was fabricated for a long lifetime test. The required cooling power of 200 mW at 20 K for the 2ST cooler and 10 mW at 1.7 K for the JT cooler are achieved by EM test. [Reprinted with permission from Elsevier. Copyright, 2010].

Details

  • Original title: Development of mechanical cryocoolers for Astro-H/SXS.
  • Record ID : 2010-1729
  • Languages: English
  • Source: 2009 Space Cryogenics Workshop, Arcadia, USA, June 23-25.
  • Publication date: 2010/09
  • DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cryogenics.2010.02.003

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