A cryogenic facility that is capable of testing large instruments used in space to make sure they function in the extreme cold is in the works and it is hoped that the project will help open the doors for the University of Lethbridge to get involved in future space missions.
The Canada Foundation for Innovation donated $150,000 on Tuesday towards the purchase of a cryogenic testing facility for the U of L.
“The CTF will allow us to cool an instrument bigger than a large toaster oven,” said Dr. David Naylor, U of L physics professor and board of governors research chair. “We’ve never been able to do this before. We’ve been able to cool small things but this will allow us to cool very large instruments that will go into space.”
The team has designed and built instrumentation that has gone into space before and has the expertise required to do the low-temperature testing.
“There are a number of new space astronomy missions in the pipeline and all of them require that the instrumentation you use be cooled to exquisitely low temperatures,” said Naylor.
Naylor says currently, labs around the world test individual components and then they are put together with the hope that they will perform as expected.
For example, the Herschel telescope, which provided the most detailed observations to date of the far infrared universe, had limited sensitivity because of the relatively warm temperature of the telescope itself.
Even though it was cooled to about 80 kelvin (-193 c), the telescope still contributed a significant amount of background noise which made it more difficult for scientists to extract the signals from distant galaxies. Researchers says obtaining more detailed pictures of the far infrared universe is possible if the telescope and all the on-board instrumentation can be operated at about 4 Kelvin (-269 C).
The new CTF will allow them to test larger instruments in extremely cold conditions to ensure they work before being sent into space.
“We plan to participate in different space projects but each instrument will be of a different size and shape so this test facility has to accommodate instruments that people haven’t even thought of yet,” said Naylor. “It brings new equipment to our arsenal that doesn’t exist in Canada and positions us to become a partner of choice on future space missions from any space agency.”
The CTF will be installed in Naylor’s lab at the University sometime this year and the total cost of the project is pegged at just over $375,000.
The province is expected to contribute $150,000 to the project and the final 20 percent of the funding will come from the prime manufacturer, Quantum Technology.
Dr. Naylor will be speaking on investing in space exploration on Thursday from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the U of L’s Dr. Foster James Penny Building, at 324 5 Street S.
The event is free and open to the public.
