CAL, le cryoréfrigérateur de l'espace de la NASA

CAL (Cold Atom Lab), qui devrait permettre d'atteindre des températures de l'ordre de 100 pico-Kelvin, sera utilisé pour l'étude de gaz quantiques ultra-froids dans l'environnement de microgravité de la Station Spatiale Internationale (ISS). (en anglais)
NASA’s new facility, Cold Atom Lab (CAL), expected to reach effective temperatures down to 100 pico-Kelvin (pK), will be used for the study of ultra-cold quantum gases in the microgravity environment on the International Space Station (ISS).

Under these conditions, interaction times up to 20 seconds and temperatures as low as 1 pK can be achieved.
It is also possible to make very weak “magnetic traps” for the expansion of quantum gases, as there is no longer any need to support the atoms against the pull of gravity.

Superfluid Fermi and gases Bose Einstein Condensates (BECs), which do not mix like an ordinary gas, but “interfere” like waves in parallel layers separated by thin layers of empty space will also be studied. CAL will also allow for demonstration of areas such as laser cooling of Rubidium and Potassium, evaporative cooling in a space environment, Delta-kick cooling to temperatures below 100 pK.

A Nasa Research Announcement was released on July 11, 2013 to solicit proposals from academic and research institutions to utilize the CAL facility which will be launched in 2016.