The Thermal Design, Characterization, and Performance of the SPIDER Long-Duration Balloon Cryostat

Abstract

We describe the SPIDER flight cryostat, which is designed to cool six millimeter-wavelength telescopes during an Antarctic long-duration balloon flight. The cryostat, one of the largest to have flown on a stratospheric payload, uses liquid helium-4 to deliver cooling power to stages at 4.2 and 1.6 K. Stainless steel capillaries facilitate a high flow impedance connection between the main liquid helium tank and a smaller superfluid tank, allowing the latter to operate at 1.6 K as long as there is liquid in the 4.2 K main tank. Each telescope houses a closed cycle helium-3 adsorption refrigerator that further cools the focal planes down to 300 mK. Liquid helium vapor from the main tank is routed through heat exchangers that cool radiation shields, providing negative thermal feedback. The system performed successfully during a 17 day flight in the 2014-2015 Antarctic summer. The cryostat had a total hold time of 16.8 days, with 15.9 days occurring during flight.

15 pgs, 17 figs

References in corpus (7)

• The Robinson Gravitational Wave Background Telescope (BICEP): a bolometric large angular scale CMB polarimeter
• Measurements of E-Mode Polarization and Temperature-E-Mode Correlation in the Cosmic Microwave Background from 100 Square Degrees of SPTpol Data
• Thermal Conductivity of Thermally-Isolating Polymeric and Composite Structural Support Materials Between 0.3 and 4 K
• SPIDER: a balloon-borne CMB polarimeter for large angular scales
• Design and performance of the Spider instrument
• Pre-flight integration and characterization of the SPIDER balloon-borne telescope
• Pointing control for the SPIDER balloon-borne telescope

Cited by in corpus (13)

• The Simons Observatory: Instrument Overview
• SPIDER: CMB polarimetry from the edge of space
• The Simons Observatory Large Aperture Telescope Receiver
• A New Limit on CMB Circular Polarization from SPIDER
• A cryogenic rotation stage with a large clear aperture for the half-wave plates in the Spider instrument
• Instrumental performance and results from testing of the BLAST-TNG receiver, submillimeter optics, and MKID arrays
• QUBIC V: Cryogenic system design and performance
• Design of 280 GHz feedhorn-coupled TES arrays for the balloon-borne polarimeter SPIDER
• Preflight Characterization of the BLAST-TNG Receiver and Detector Arrays
• 280 GHz Focal Plane Unit Design and Characterization for the SPIDER-2 Suborbital Polarimeter
• Design and pre-flight performance of SPIDER 280 GHz receivers
• The Simons Observatory: Design and Measured Performance of a Carbon Fiber Strut for a Cryogenic Truss
• In-Flight Performance of Spider's 280 GHz Receivers