Overview of Cryocooler Technologies for Space-Based Electronics and Sensors

The state of the art of cryocoolers that will meet the cooling needs of space-based electronics and sensors is reviewed. Other coolers that have been produced in large quantities for commercial or military use as well as passive coolers such as stored cryogens and radiators, have been reviewed quite extensively in the past. Cryocoolers to meet the spaceborne environment for a wide range of applications are by nature compromises of conflicting requirements. These requirements include cooling power at the appropriate low temperature with low input power, long lifetime, reliable and maintenance-free operation with minimum vibration and noise, compactness and light weight. Coolers under consideration or development include flexure bearing and magnetic bearing type Stirling coolers, pulse tube coolers, Vuilleumier (VM) coolers, magnetocaloric refrigerators, closed cycle Joule-Thompson coolers, the sorption refrigerators and Reverse Brayton Cycle refrigerators. The features of these coolers for space applications are compared. The compromises among these systems in terms of reliability, efficiency, size, vibration and system interface and their most likely regimes of applicability are discussed.