Cryogenics & Fluids Home
Robert Boyle
Cryogenics and Fluids Branch
Code 552
NASA/ Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, MD 20771
The Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) spacecraft was launched on February 5, 2002. With more than a year of operation on-orbit, its Sunpower M77 cryocooler continues to maintain the array of nine germanium detectors below 80 K. Trends have begun to emerge in cryocooler power and vibration, suggesting that the cooler's operating point is slowly changing. Possible causes are identified and discussed.
Pages 389-393
Cryogenics, Volume 44, Issues 6-8 (June - August 2004)
[2003 Space Cryogenics Workshop,
Edited by M. Larson and W. A. Holmes]