Development of Two-Stage Stirling Cooler for ASTRO-F

• Main Authors: Narasaki, K, Tsunematsu, S, Ootsuka, K, Kyoya, M, Matsumoto, T, Murakami, H, Nakagawa, T
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0094-243X
• DOI: 10.1063/1.1774835

A two-stage small Stirling cooler has been developed and tested for the infrared astronomical satellite ASTRO-F that is planned to be launched by Japanese M-V rocket in 2005. ASTRO-F has a hybrid cryogenic system that is a combination of superfluid liquid helium (HeII) and two-stage Stirling coolers. The mechanical cooler has a two-stage displacer driven by a linear motor in a cold head and a new linear-ball-bearing system for the piston-supporting structure in a compressor. The linear-ball-bearing supporting system achieves the piston clearance seal, the long piston-stroke operation and the low frequency operation. The typical cooling power is 200 mW at 20 K and the total input power to the compressor and the cold head is below 90 W without driver electronics. The engineering, the prototype and the flight models of the cooler have been fabricated and evaluated to verify the capability for ASTRO-F. This paper describes the design of the cooler and the results from verification tests including cooler performance test, thermal vacuum test, vibration test and lifetime test.