West Coast Solutions brings decades of multidisciplinary cryocooler and cryogenic system experience to solve your most challenging needs. Here are some examples of how we can help you:
The EXoplanet Climate Infrared TElescope (EXCITE) is a high altitude, balloon-borne near-infrared spectrometer designed for observation of Jupiter-like exoplanets. Cryogenic cooling on the EXCITE spectrometer is achieved with two Thales LPT 9310 cryocoolers. Each LPT 9310 cooler is driven and controlled with a variant of the Creare-West Coast Solutions Miniature Cryocooler Control Electronics (MCCE) designed to strike the right balance between cost, radiation hardness, and robustness for the EXCITE balloon mission. The EXCITE MCCE also includes active vibration cancellation. These electronics have already been flown by NASA GSFC on an initial balloon “proof of function” mission in preparation for the full EXCITE mission execution in the near future.
West Coast Solutions, in collaboration with the Georgia Tech Cryo Lab (GTCL), is developing the SmallSat Stirling Cryocooler (SSC-X) for the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) to help meet the challenges of next generation ballistic missile defense through a large constellation of small satellites. SSC-X will yield a 2X improvement in Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) relative to current state of the art cryocoolers of comparable size and capacity. The projected key performance parameters are 2.8W @ 77K for 32 WAC input power in a flight package weighing <1.5 kg. Following a successful brassboard test program on a prior STTR program, a Sequential Phase II SBIR was awarded in July 2022 with the goal of producing and qualifying flight prototypes.
West Coast Solutions has been teamed with Hawaii Space Flight Laboratory (HSFL) since 2018 as the Cryocooler Systems Engineering Team on the HyTI mission, which is on track to launch in late 2023. WCS was brought on board at the start of the program to lead the cryocooler selection activity, and continues to support the program in all aspects of cryocooler systems engineering, including providing test support for the AIM SF-070 cryocooler out of our Huntington Beach laboratory and onsite at HSFL.
West Coast Solutions provided mission critical support to Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the selection, integrated design, and test of the Cryocooler Subsystem. One key task involved the design of a Cryogenic Thermal Demonstrator to experimentally determine the cryogenic thermal loads to be expected in the UCIS instrument. Additional program tasks included SolidWorks Simulation finite element thermal analysis and computational fluid dynamics to guide the heat sink designs.
West Coast Solutions is teamed with the Georgia Institute of Technology on a 3-year NASA ESI Program to develop next generation regenerative heat exchanger (regenerator) technology to enable 150W @ 90K and 20W @ 20K for linear (Stirling and pulse tube) cryocoolers.
As one element of our wide range of cryocooler control electronics experience, West Coast Solutions brings a particular expertise in the design of high-performance filters to mitigate the low frequency current ripple imparted onto the input bus by a typical Stirling or pulse tube cryocooler. WCS can tailor the solution to optimally balance the customer’s needs in terms of CE-101 compliance, efficiency, mass, and input and output voltage levels. Recent experience includes a two-channel ripple filter for UCIS (see above), the ripple filter for the HyTI Program, both passive and active space cryocooler ripple filters in the 100W class, and a 600W airborne version.
17682 Gothard Street, Ste. 201
Huntington Beach, CA 92647
(714) 587-4628
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