An Overview of Air Force Phillips Laboratory Cryocooler Programs

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of the cryogenic refrigerator programs currently under development and test at the U. S. Air Force Phillips Laboratory. The vision statement for the Phillips Laboratory Cryogenic Focused Technology Area is to support the Department of Defense (DoD) space community as a center of excellence for developing and transitioning space cryogenic thermal management technologies. The primary customers for the Laboratory’s programs are the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization and the USAF/Space and Missile Tracking System Program Office (formerly Brilliant Eyes). The SMTS program is concentrating on the near term Flight Demonstration System (1998 launch), while the BMDO organization emphasizes development of technology to support the far term Objective System launch (2002).

Phillips Laboratory’s cryocooler development programs are generally categorized according to cooling requirement and operating temperature. This paper will describe a variety of Stirling, pulse tube, and Brayton cryocoolers currently under development to meet single stage cooling requirements at 60 K, 150 K, 35 K, and multi-load cooling requirements at 35/60 K. Phillips Laboratory is also developing several advanced cryogenic integration technologies that will result in the reduction in current cryogenic system integration penalties and design time. These technologies include the continued development of the Cryogenic Systems Integration Model (CSIM), 60 and 120 K thermal storage units and heat pipes, cryogenic straps, thermal switches, and development of a cryogenic integration bus.