New technologies - cooling engines etc.?

There have been reported two new technologies to cool something.

One is a laser-based technology using Fluoride-glas containing Ytterbium. The effect of cooling is got by resulting fluorescence. According to www.wissenschaft.de this technology has been reported by Applied Physics Letters (Vol. 86, Art.Nr. 154107) and is explicitly said first to be used for colling cameras aboard satellites probanly.

The new developed cooler cools down to -65° C. Using Fluoride-glas of better quality a temperature of -173° C is realistic. Theoretically -223° C are possible.

What about using this for cooling at reentry? What about cooling engines, propellant etc. this way? Preventing explosions?

Another new technology is the use of the thermoelectrical effect based on nanotechnology. This technology is already there but currently has an effiency of 10 % only. But according to an article in the Physical Review Letters (volume 94, article 096601) by using cluster of so-called quantum points instead of conventional semiconductors the efficiency can be increased up to 50%

What about using this for the purposes already listed above?



Dipl.-Volkswirt (bdvb) Augustin (Political Economist)

Heh. In order for something to be supercooled, it has to also be highly pressurized (otherwise you'd need a medium-sized nuclear reactor just to power the cooling unit -- pressurizing your coolant as well and drawing heat from it saves you hundreds of kilos of mass and billions of dollars). Note that "highly pressurized" means something like "within about a thousand kilometers of Jupiter's core" pressurized. Thus, if there is a breach in the pressurizing system, a very very large number of very very nasty things occur in very very rapid succession.

Cryogenics doesn't help stop explosions, it causes them.

Alright - then these technologies cannot applied in the prevention of explosions and in the cooling of propellant.

But what about cooling the vehicle at reentry or using these technologies at the dayside of the moon at regions around the equator or at flights to Venus or Mercury or closer to the sun?



Dipl.-Volkswirt (bdvb) Augustin (Political Economist)

The channel wall nozzles of Energiya's RD-0120 made sense. New doesn't mean better.
http://www.astronautix.com/engines/rd0120.htm

Initially I had in mind cooling at reentry - but the new technologies may be of use for space missions too: missions landing in hot environments: venusian surface, mercurian surface and going into the jovian atmosphere.

The laser to cause the colling could be aboard the landers/rovers as well as aboard probes or DSSs of JP Aerospace.

What about this too? Please think about this as well as about reentry.



Dipl.-Volkswirt (bdvb) Augustin (Political Economist)

Obviously t/Space's CXV is designed to use cooling at reentry - under "Projects"/"Crew Transfer Vehicle (CXV)" ( 64.78.33.215/index.cfm?fuseaction=projects.view&workid=CCD3097A-96B6-175C-97F15F270F2B83AA ) they say:



Although this seems NOT to be a new technology I considered it worth to be said here. I never heard before of a space vehicle using cooling for reentry. Has there already been one?

This vehicle should be built. What about this reentry equipment?



Dipl.-Volkswirt (bdvb) Augustin (Political Economist)

Don't forget Borazon.