NIST Miniature Refrigerator Flies Aboard Current Shuttle Mission
When Space Shuttle Endeavour blasted into space on December 5, it carried aboard the world's smallest version of a relatively new type of refrigerator-- a pulse-tube cryocooler. The device was designed, built and tested under an agreement between the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Boulder Laboratories, Lockheed Martin Corporation and NASA's Ames Research Center.
Cryocoolers can be used to cool infrared sensors needed for the study of temperature variations in the atmosphere and the oceans. Such data is vital to a greater understanding of the ozone hole, global warming and long-range weather patterns.