The Coolest Technology: Cryocoolers
By Kelly McSweeney
Cryocoolers are machines that keep sensors extremely cold so that satellites and space telescopes can take pictures on long-term missions. Whether we're looking back toward Earth or outward into deep space, the sensors that capture images require extremely low temperatures. If sensors aren't cooled to cryogenic temperatures, they simply won't work. And if future missions such as the James Webb Space Telescope are going to scan the skies for evidence of the beginning of the universe, the imaging devices need constant, reliable cooling.
"It's not the device itself that I find so interesting," says John Russo, senior mechanical engineer in Northrop Grumman's cryocooler group. "It's what that device enables."
"Stars have exploded or burned up long ago, but that light is still traveling through space. That light will hit the primary mirror, bounce through the system and be focused onto the detector. And if the detector is at the right temperature, that light will be seen."
— John Russo, Senior Mechanical Engineer
