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Agreements between NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Lockheed Martin (LM)*, and Lake Shore Cryotronics* will prepare Goddard’s Continuous Adiabatic Demagnetization Refrigerator (CADR) technology for use by NASA missions and other aerospace organizations. A Space Act Agreement (SAA) with LM will enable the company to design a CADR/cryocooler system to address potential temperature instability or performance issues between the CADR and cryocooler. In a complementary agreement, NASA has licensed a key component of the CADR technology to Lake Shore Cryotronics. The company plans to incorporate the technology’s revolutionary cryogenic cooling capabilities into its existing product line and to build control electronics for marketable CADR units, benefiting NASA as well as the larger low-temperature physics research community.

Benefits of Technology Transfer

• Relying on cryogenic cooling for space-based applications, particularly infrared detectors and telescopes, NASA will benefit by being able to purchase the completed CADR units from Lake Shore at a much more economical price point than would have been possible by manufacturing them in-house. Space-based use of infrared detectors has important application in X-ray and infrared (IR) detectors.
  
  
• NASA may also be able to use the units for other uses, including the study of critical phenomena, such as the study of the formation of solid helium in low-gravity.
  
  
• LM will benefit by applying the results of its CADR/cryocooler integration to the production of commercially available systems for other areas of its business, particularly rocket-based research.
  
  
• Lake Shore plans to market the CADR units to research labs and universities, providing the company a competitive advantage and helping to further research in low-temperature physics and condensed matter physics.
  
  
• The production of CADR control electronics puts NASA, LM, and Lake Shore one step closer to developing a fully space-qualified cryogenic cooling system. While much development is still needed to reach this goal, the manufacture of a space-ready system could be of tremendous benefit to many NASA missions including Mars exploration and Constellation-X Observatory.

About Lake Shore Cryotronics

Headquartered in Westerville, Ohio, Lake Shore Cryotronics specializes in temperature sensing and control, magnetic field measurement, and materials property measurement. The company has been an international leader in the development of innovative measurement and control technologies since 1968, fueling much of its growth through the study of the physical properties of materials at very low temperatures. Lake Shore is constantly seeking new markets for present technologies and acquiring new ideas and patents by license, purchase, or informal associations.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin employs about 140,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in aeronautics, space systems, and information technology (IT). The company is also a world leader in the development of space-qualified cryocoolers, most recently participating as one of three contractors funded by NASA’s Advanced Cryocooler Technology Development Program to produce and demonstrate a 6 K cooler intended for use on Constellation-X*, Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF)*, and James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)*. Combined with expertise in the integration of cryocoolers with space instruments, Lockheed Martin is well qualified to lead the process of generating cryogenic system designs for missions that will use ultra-low coolers.

Technology Origins

CADR is a revolutionary cryogenic cooling technology developed by Goddard researchers Drs. Peter Shirron and Michael DiPirro in response to the limited applicability of traditional ADRs for space-based applications. Their work began in 1999 with the goal of building a new ADR* that could produce continuous cooling at ultra-low temperatures, resulting in the higher performance needed for new space missions. In order to be used in space applications, traditional ADRs require liquid cryogens in order to handle their large periodic heat output. Conversely, the CADR developed by Goddard's researchers is compatible with flight cryocoolers under development, and therefore enables continuous cryogenic cooling of items to milliKelvin temperatures without the need for stored cryogens. The technology also has no moving parts and is delivered at a smaller size and lower weight than competing technologies, making it ideal for space-based applications and other IR-based devices operating in very cool conditions. The performance gain over traditional ADRs was compelling enough that the CADR was included in the baseline cryogenic system design for NASA’s Constellation-X Observatory, a collection of X-ray telescopes working in unison to investigate important topics such as galaxy formation, relativity, and the evolution of the known universe.

While Goddard’s CADR technology achieves the cooling power needed at the lowest temperatures required by space missions (about 50 mK), researchers were concerned about the technology’s ability to achieve the necessary temperature stability. At cryogenic temperatures, electronics and software play a large role in determining the success of maintaining a stable temperature when alternating heat flows resulting from environmental disturbances produce potentially large temperature fluctuations. Researchers also had concerns about using a mechanical cryocooler that could produce smaller (and sometimes undetected) temperature fluctuations. Through collaboration with both Lake Shore and LM, significant improvements will be made to the CADR control electronics (by Lake Shore) and temperature instability addressed through a new cryocooler system (by LM) – advances that would have been much more costly and time consuming for Goddard to achieve on its own.

Licensing of the CADR technology to Lake Shore was originally initiated at the 2003 Cryogenics Engineering Conference attended by Dr. Shirron. There, Lake Shore expressed an interest in licensing the CADR technology and began collaborative discussions with CADR innovators and staff from Goddard’s Innovative Partnerships Program (IPP) Office. The IPP facilitated ongoing discussions between Goddard researchers and Lake Shore, and administered the license agreement for the patented components of the CADR technology, signed in 2006.

Long-standing discussions formed a basis for Goddard’s newest agreement with LM. Since Goddard’s CADR is designed to be coupled with a cryocooler, Goddard personnel have been informally collaborating with a few companies that produce cryocoolers for a number of years. In the summer of 2006, LM approached Goddard to begin an effort with the eventual goal of building a demonstration CADR/cryocooler unit. The timing was ideal for Goddard to team with LM through an IPP Seed Fund proposal, securing the resources necessary to begin the work through an SAA.

With a license in place, Goddard innovators are collaborating with Lake Shore to build prototype units in an effort to expedite the manufacture and marketing of the technology. Researchers will conduct intensive testing and optimization of a custom ADR controller built by Lake Shore. Concurrently, Goddard will modify the lowest temperature stages to improve their thermal “responsiveness” to take maximum advantage of the controller’s high bandwidth. Cryocooler experts at Lockheed Martin will lead the process of generating new cryogenic system designs for missions that will use ultra-low coolers. Subsequent commercial units for sale to aerospace organizations (including NASA), universities, and research labs will be Lake Shore’s first priority.

Contact

Innovative Partnerships Program Office
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Phone: (301) 286-5810
E-mail: techtransfer@gsfc.nasa.gov