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Outgas analysis of mechanical cryocoolers for long lifetime
Nakagawa, Takao; Mitsuda, Kazuhisa; Kanao, Kenichi +9 more
Mechanical cryocoolers for space applications are required to have high reliability to achieve long-term operation in orbit. ASTRO-H (Hitomi), the 6th Japanese X-ray astronomy mission, has a major scientific instrument onboard-the Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) with several 20K-class two-stage Stirling (2ST) coolers and a 4K-class Joule Thomson (JT…
Operating modes and cooling capabilities of the 3-stage ADR developed for the Soft-X-ray Spectrometer instrument on Astro-H
Kelley, Richard L.; Porter, Frederick S.; DiPirro, Michael J. +8 more
A 3-stage adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator (ADR) (Shirron et al., 2012) is used on the Soft X-ray Spectrometer instrument (Mitsuda et al., 2010) on Astro-H (Takahashi et al., 2010) [3] to cool a 6 × 6 array of X-ray microcalorimeters to 50 mK. The ADR is supported by a cryogenic system (Fujimoto et al., 2010) consisting of a superfluid heliu…
Flight model performance test results of a helium dewar for the soft X-ray spectrometer onboard ASTRO-H
Mitsuda, Kazuhisa; Fujimoto, Ryuichi; Yoshida, Seiji +10 more
ASTRO-H is a Japanese X-ray astronomy satellite, scheduled to be launched in fiscal year 2015. The mission includes a soft X-ray spectrometer instrument (SXS), which contains an X-ray micro calorimeter operating at 50 mK by using an adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator (ADR). The heat sink of the ADR is superfluid liquid helium below 1.3 K. The …
Thermodynamic performance of the 3-stage ADR for the Astro-H Soft-X-ray Spectrometer instrument
Kelley, Richard L.; Porter, Frederick S.; DiPirro, Michael J. +6 more
The Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) instrument (Mitsuda et al., 2010) [1] on Astro-H (Takahashi et al., 2010) [2] will use a 3-stage ADR (Shirron et al., 2012) to cool the microcalorimeter array to 50 mK. In the primary operating mode, two stages of the ADR cool the detectors using superfluid helium at ⩽1.20 K as the heat sink (Fujimoto et al., 2010…
Flight model measurements of the porous plug and film flow suppression system for the ASTRO-H Soft X-ray Spectrometer dewar
Ezoe, Yuichiro; Ishikawa, Kumi; Ohashi, Takaya +9 more
Flight model measurements of a porous plug phase separator and a film flow suppression system for the ASTRO-H Soft X-ray Spectrometer dewar are described. ASTRO-H is the sixth Japanese astronomy satellite and will be launched in 2016. It carries the Soft X-ray Spectrometer consisting of an X-ray optic and an X-ray microcalorimeter system operated …
Lifetime test and heritage on orbit of coolers for space use
Nakagawa, Takao; Mitsuda, Kazuhisa; Murakami, Masahide +11 more
This report describes the results and operating status of ground lifetime testing and achievements on orbit of coolers for space use. Ground lifetime tests of coolers of three types were conducted to demonstrate their long life and reliability. Three single-stage Stirling coolers were tested for 89,016, 71,871 and 68,273 h from 1998, a two-stage S…
Development of porous plug phase separator and superfluid film flow suppression system for the Soft X-ray Spectrometer onboard ASTRO-H
Yamaguchi, Hiroya; Ezoe, Yuichiro; Ishikawa, Kumi +10 more
ASTRO-H is the sixth Japanese astronomy satellite scheduled for launch in 2014. The Soft X-ray Spectrometer instrument is onboard ASTRO-H. This is a 6 × 6 array of X-ray microcalorimeters with an energy resolution of <7 eV at 0.5-10 keV. Superfluid liquid helium is utilized as a part of the cooling system. To retain the liquid helium in the tan…