Stageable J-T cryostats with precooling interfaces and high-flux cold tip heat exchangers are essential for development of sorption cryocooler systems for spacecraft. Development is proposed of a stageable, anti-clogging J-T cryostat which combines the key innovations of an integral precooler/condenser section, commandable nozzle control, and a new form of high-heat-flux cold-tip heat exchanger. The precooler section can be readily coupled to a preceding cooling stage, such as a space radiator, thermoelectric cooler, etc., or the cold tip of another cryostat so that a series of like cryostats can be staged together. Commandable control of the nozzle allows regulating refrigeration, sequencing stages, and periodically flushing contaminants from the nozzle. The cold tip heat exchanger provides for much more effective mixing and heat transfer into the vaporizing liquid fraction of the flow than a conventional cold tip of comparable size.
Potential Commercial Applications:Versions of the proposed J-T cryostat would be highly advantageous for a wide variety of applications requiring prolonged continuous low-noise cryocooling and/or commandable control of the cryostat, including: cryo-surgery instruments; gamma-ray spectrometers; x-ray spectrometers; infrared spectrometers and imagers; SQUIDS; and cryoelectronics such as for high-density, high-speed microprocessors, very low-noise amplifiers, and superconducting filters and multiplexers for computers, communications, and electronic countermeasures systems.
