Cooling Technology for Large Space Telescopes
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Source of Acquisition NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Cooling Technology for Large Space Telescopes Michael DiPirro, Paul Cleveland****, Dale Durand*, Andy Klavins*", Danniella Muheim, Christopher Pahe***, Mike Petach*, Domenick Tenerelli*", Jason Tolomeo**, Keith Walyus NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Greenbelt, MD 20771 * Northrop Grumman Space Technology; One Space Park; Redondo Beach, CA 90278 ** Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company; 1111 Lockheed Martin Way; Sunnyvale, CA 94089 *** Jet hopulsion Laboratory; California Institute of Technology; 4800 Oak Grove Drive; Pasadena, CA 91 109 **** Energy Solutions International, LLC, 8705 Cathedral Way, Gaithersburg, MD 20879-1791 Abstract - NASA's New Millennium Program funded an effort to incompatible with the design and lifetime requirements of develop a system cooling technology, which is applicable to all large far-infrared (IR) observatories: they are large, cumber- future infrared, sub-millimeter and millimeter cryogenic space some to incorporate into an observatory, require special telescopes. In particular, this technology is necessary for the launch and early operations procedures, and ultimately limit proposed large space telescope Single Aperture Far-Infrared Telescope (SAFIR) mission. This technology will also enhance the useful lifetime of the instruments. The new paradigm for the performance and lower the risk and cost for other cryogenic cooling to low temperatures will be cryogen free. It will in- missions. The new paradigm for cooling to low temperatures volve passive cooling using light-weight deployable mem- will involve passive cooling using lightweight deployable mem- branes that serve both as sunshields and V-groove radiators, branes that serve both as sunshields and V-groove radiators, in in combination with active cryogenic coolers providing tem- combination with active cooling using mechanical coolers oper- peratures down to 4 K. The sunshield inner membrane layer ating down to 4 K. must reach -15 K and exhibit low surface emissivity. Pas- The Cooling Technology for Large Space Telescopes (LST) sive cooling alone cannot reach these temperatures under the mission planned to develop and demonstrate a multi-layered conditions required for far-IR observatories so a new tech- sunshield, which is actively cooled by a multi-stage mechanical cryocooler, and further the models and analyses critical to scal- nological solution is required, Fig. 1. ing to future missions. The outer four layers of the sunshield cool passively by radiation, while the innermost layer is actively cooled to enable the sunshield to decrease the incident solar ir- radiance by a factor of more than one million. The cryocooler cools the inner layer of the sunshield to 20 K, and provides cooling to 6 K at a telescope mounting plate. The technology readiness level (TRL)of 7 will be achieved by the active cooling technology following the technology validation flight in Low Earth Orbit. Fig. 1 LST is a bridge for cryogenic technology for future space missions In accordance with the New Millennium charter, tests and modeling are tightly integrated to advance the technology and The science goals for SAFIR and similar far-IR missions the flight design for "ST-class" missions. Commercial off-the- require that the telescope be cooled to 4-6 K. The exact tem- shelf engineering analysis products are used to develop validated perature requirement depends upon the detailed science goals, modeling capabilities to allow the techniques and results from and on assumptions of instrument design, but a 4-6 K tem- LST to apply to a wide variety of future missions. The LST perature range is generally accepted [I]. Cooling the tele- mission plans to "rewrite the book" on cryo-thermal testing and scope to this temperature range permits improved perform- modeling techniques, and validate modeling techniques to scale ance in two ways: (1) smaller telescopes or shorter integra- to future space telescopes such as SAFIR. tions can be employed, Fig. 2, and (2) decreased background noise allows detection of weaker signals, Fig. 3. ~MMI] I. MISSION OVERVIEW Space provides a unique vantage point for telescopes used in infrared astrophysics. To take full advantage of the space environment, it is necessary to suppress the self-emission of the telescope by cooling it to 4-6 Kelvin (K). In the past, these low temperatures were achieved using stored cryogens, such as helium or hydrogen. Stored cryogenic systems are as substitutes for stored cryogen systems in the future: pas- sive cooling and mechanical cryocoolers. The power of the new technology proposed by LST is reflected in cost and mass savings; for example, using lightweight passive shields and a cryocooler rather than rigid metal shields and a helium dewar, Spitzer's mass could have been reduced by at least 25%. The New Millennium Program (NMP), managed by the Jet Propulsion LaboratorylCalifornia Institute of Technology I (JPL), selected actively cooled sunshields as a system-level 10 100 1000 technology to be matured through a Phase A study under Wavelength (vm) Space Technology 9 (ST9). The LST team, comprised of LsTnm industry and government team members, was chartered to Fig. 2 4K telescopes can be much smaller for non-photon-limited objects. advance the technology from a minimum of Technology Readiness Level 3 through TRL 4 and prepare a system-level flight validation concept to fly in LEO. The government study team consisted of members from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and JPL. For the active cooling technology, Lockheed Martin was selected to provide a high performance deployable sunshield with one or more actively- cooled layers that will significantly reduce the thermal emis- sions impinging on the payload. Northrop Grumman was selected to provide a mechanical two-stage cryocooler with the capability to generate greater than 150 mW of continuous active cooling at less than 25 K to cool the cold-side layer of the sunshade, and greater than 20 mW of continuous active cooling at less than 15 K for cooling of a telescope mount plate. The LST ST9 flight concept experiment is shown in II I 10-8 1 y- Fig. 4. LST will be the first flight of this two-stage pulse- 4 K Telescope tubeIJoule-Thompson 6 K mechanical cryocooler and a light- lo-9-I I I! / I 0.1 1 10 100 1000 weight membrane sunshieldN-groove radiator. Wavelength (~m) LSTW Fig. 3 4K is necessary to see the faintest objects. A number of very successful astronomical missions have employed stored cryogens to directly cool telescopes, among them the InfraRed Astronomy Satellite (IRAS, 1983), the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE, 1989), the Infra- Red Telescope in Space (IRTS, 1994), and the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO, 1995). The Spitzer Infrared Observatory (2003), the first to cool a mirror located outside the main cryogen dewar to save mass, is an exquisitely engineered 0.37 rn liquid helium cooled telescope. Yet, for a 4 to 5 year pro- jected on-orbit life, it requires a 360 liter dewar and 237 kg of TMP cold mass to cool a 0.85 meter diameter telescope to 5.5 K, Cooling by the helium vapor provides only 6 mW at this temperature and only 26 mW at the next warmer stage (24 a am mi-Alumina Shape Set lo Exclud@Sun and Earth Adlation K). This type of system cannot be reasonably scaled up to Flw Lmr Membrane L~WRForminu a Facebd Cone Struts (6) the much larger 3.5 m Japanese mission, SPICA, 10 m Same ~ayload~lmsnslois lor Ddla ind Pogaws SAFIR, the two 4 m Submillimeter Probe of the Evolution of Cosmic Structure (SPECS), or to the telescopes for the Space Fig. 4 LST ST9 Flight Configuration. Infrared Interferometric Telescope (SPIRIT), Survey of In- Technology readiness levels describe increasing levels of fraRed Cosmic Evolution (SIRCE), and Cosmic Microwave technological maturity as an advanced technology progresses Background Polarization (CMB-Pol) missions. Two tech- from an initial idea to a flight-quality device. The NMP as- nologies, alone or in combination as required, are envisioned signed Technology Review Board members to provide an independent assessment of the technology status through tion. Video cameras with fiber optic inputs will provide peri- credible metrics for the TRLs of the actively cooled sun- odic updates about the state of the shields. The struc- shield. These TRLs ranged from 3 for an "analytical and tural/mechanical state of the system and its interactions with experimental critical function proof-of concept achieved in a the thermal system will be measured with load cells and ac- laboratory environment" through 7 for a "system prototype celerometers. demonstrated in a space environment" through a LEO flight validation. The NMP-defined TRL levels are augmented 11. TECHNOLOGY ADVANCEMENT from the standard NASA TRL levels to include predicting performance of the technology via physics-based analysis to By the end of the NMP funded study phase, the independ- the next TRL level. The sunshield was assessed by the TRB ent TRB agreed that the LST team had advanced the active to be at TRL 3 at the beginning of the study, while the me- cooling system technology to a TRL 4 with significant pro- chanical cryocooler components had been previously vali- gress to validate the components in a relevant environment dated in a laboratory environment to a TRL 4, through the and achieve TRL 5. ACTDP program [2], [3]. The activities required to achieve TRL 4 included: Current and future large space telescope missions are so *perform coupon tests of material properties of the large, cold, and lightweight that they cannot be verified by a sunshield material at 15-30 K including emissivity, con- single system-level end-to-end test. Instead, performance ductivity, coefficient of thermal expansion, modulus and will be anchored by an end-to-end integrated model verified strength by a complex series of tests, and models of smaller compo- *test the mechanical performance of the membrane nents, subassemblies, subsystems and subscale systems.