Current and future air force space cryogenic technology development

Current space cryocooler developments have achieved performance and capability that have made the use of active refrigeration in space missions feasible. Several space flight demonstrations and operational programs have baselined and implemented active refrigeration to achieve mission goals. The application of cryocooler technology validates the progress achieved to enable improved mission capabilities and reliability and lifetime confidence in active refrigeration in space. Past development efforts have focused primarily on reliability and the achievement of long life. However, future military space applications have renewed focus on improvements needed in several aspects of current cooling technology including higher capacity cooling loads, multistage cooling, mass reduction, and improvement in efficiency, low temperature performance, and lifetimes greater than 10 years. In addition, due to the potential for large system parasitic heat penalties, cryogenic integration technology is currently being developed to allow efficient cryocooler to cooled component integration. This paper will focus on the current and future developments at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Space Vehicles Directorate for advanced cryogenic integration technology.