Passive low temperature thermostat with millikelvin temperature stability for space applications

✍ Scribed by F. Pavese

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1987
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 358 KB
• Volume: 27
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0011-2275
• DOI: 10.1016/0011-2275(87)90101-9

✦ Synopsis

Due to limited energy availability energy saving methods are important in space. In cold experiments there are devices, such as detectors, which must be kept at a stable temperature: the use of active temperature controllers actually requires dissipation of energy. On the contrary, advantage can be taken of the self-stabilization effect on temperature, during melting of a pure substance at its triple point. Selecting a suitable ratio between the heat of melting of the mass of the substance and the heat exchange requirement with this heat sink, a melting plateau can be maintained for the time required (even weeks or months), keeping temperature stable within a millikelvin without any specific energy supply. In special cases, such as very long missions or stringent weight/volume requirements, when the total energy exchange overcomes the total available heat of melting, plateau conditions can be restored as many times as required and in a short time, with a sensible use of stray heat flows already available in the vehicle. The passive low temperature thermostat is a special application of a well established technique for realizing precise temperature reference points developed in the last decade. Several fixed temperatures between 14 and 90 K can be realized.