Ball aerospace 4-10 K space cryocoolers

This paper describes the design, development, testing and performance at Ball Aerospace of long life, 4-10 K temperature space cryocoolers. For temperatures down to 10 K, Ball has developed long life Stirling cycle cryocoolers. For temperatures to 4 K and below, Ball has developed a hybrid Stirling/J-T (Joule-Thomson) cooler. The hybrid cooler has been verified in test to 3.5 K on a Ball program and a 6 K Development Model is in development on the NASA/JPL ACTDP (Advanced Cryocooler Technology Development Program). The Ball ACTDP cooler Development Model will be tested in 2005. The ACTDP cooler provides simultaneous cooling at 6 K (typically, for either doped Si detectors or as a precooler for sub-Kelvin refrigerators) and 18 K (typically, for optics or shielding), with cooling stages also available at 40 and 180 K (typically, for thermal shields or other components). The ACTDP cooler is under development for the NASA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF), and Constellation X-Ray (Con-X) missions. The 4-10 K coolers are highly leveraged off previous Ball space coolers including multiple life test and flight units.