Infrared sensor satellites, which consist of cryogenic infrared sensor detectors,
electrical instrumentation, and data acquisition systems, are used to monitor the conditions
of the Earth's upper atmosphere in order to evaluate its present and future changes.
Currently, the electrical instrumentation (connections), which act as thermal bridges
between the cryogenic infrared sensor and the significantly warmer data acquisition unit
of the sensor satellite system, constitute a significant portion of the heat load on the
cryogen. As a part of extending the mission life of the sensor satellite system, the
researchers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Langley Research
Center (NASA-LaRC) are evaluating the effectiveness of replacing the currently used
manganin wires with high-temperature superconductive (HTS) materials as the electrical
connections (thermal bridges). In conjunction with the study being conducted at NASALaRC,
the proposed research is to design a space experiment to determine the thermal
savings on a cryogenic subsystem when manganin leads are replaced by HTS leads
-printed onto a substrate with a low thermal conductivity, and to determine the thermal
conductivities of HTS materials.
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