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Abstract

This paper describes the development of long-life cooling systems for use in spacecraft. The original single-stage coolers were developed by the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) and Oxford University for the Improved Stratospheric and Mesospheric Sounder (ISAMS), an Oxford University instrument that will be part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (US) (NASA's) Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite. Since then RAL has continued development of these coolers to produce lower temperatures and the technology has been transferred to industry via the British Technology Group (BTG). This has been possible by the award of contracts from the European Space Agency (ESA) and internal funding.

The coolers are now available from industry and have been baselined for a variety of future instruments both in Europe and the United States.

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Mechanical Cooling Systems for use in Space

Abstract

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References