A Liquid Hydrogen Cooler with a Cooling Capacity of 20 Watts, Phase I

For the future spaceport and long-term storage of liquid hydrogen NASA requires cryocoolers that can provide cooling power in the range of 20 watts at 20 K. The closed-cycle cooling alternatives currently available for such applications are not well suited to the requirements. In many cases reliability is low and vibration high. In other cases coolers are too massive and inefficient. This proposal describes a two-stage pulse tube cryocooler that combines several innovative design features. The proposed pulse tube will be light-weight, efficient, reliable, vibration free, and easy to integrate with cryogenic dewars.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

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