The Continuous Adiabatic Demagnetization Refrigerator (CADR) Innovation Pathway

This pathway describes the development of a Continuous Adiabatic Demagnetization Refrigerator (CADR) within NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s (GSFC, or Goddard) cryogenics and fluids branch. After more than a decade of concerted development efforts, the team is still awaiting a mission opportunity on which to fly the full system. Like the traditional ADR, the CADR will maintain spacecraft instruments at the required mili-Kelvin operating temperatures. Unlike the incumbent, the CADR operates continuously (eliminating the need to pause observation time while the cooling system recycles) and provides significant mass reductions for a fixed cooling power requirement. These advantages will become increasingly important as future X-ray, IR and submilimeter observatories incorporate larger and more advanced detector arrays.