The High Temperature Superconductivity Space Experiment: Present Status and Future Challenges

Abstract

ABSTRACT The High Temperature Superconductivity Space Experiment (HTSSE) at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is exploring the feasibility of deploying high temperature superconducting (HTS) electronic devices, components and subsystems in space. The initial HTSSE experiment, which employed HTS technology available in 1990, focused on simple microwave devices which were suitably packaged, integrated with a cryogenic refrigerator and built into a space‐qualified payload. Unfortunately the HTSSE‐I payload, which was to have been launched in 1993, did not achieve orbit and was lost. The second HTSSE experiment, HTSSETI, which employs HTS technology circa 1993‐94, consists of complex HTS components and hybrid subsystems consisting of HTS and conventional semiconductor components, the latter operating either at cryogenic temperature or at room temperature. The HTSSE‐II payload containing the HTS components, cryogenic refrigerator and monitoring electronics was built, space qualified and shipped from NRL to the satellite integrator in the Spring of 1996. The launch of HTSSE‐II on the Advanced Global and Research Observation Satellite (ARGOS), which was originally set for mid‐1996, is now scheduled for March 1998. A description of the HTSSE‐II payload will be presented and the performance of the HTS components and their potential impact on future space communications systems will be described.