Sunday, October 21, 2018

superconductivity - Why superconductors aren't used in space?


As we all know temperature of space is near to absolute zero.Then why super conductors aren't used there?



Answer



The intensity of the light from the Sun at the orbit of the Earth is around 1.4 kilowatts per square metre. For comparison, a domestic heater is usually around 3 kW, so a satellite with a 2m surface area (admittedly this is bigger than most satellites) facing the Sun needs to dissipate as much energy as used to heat your living room. This is in addition to the waste heat produced by the electronics on the satellite. For most satellites it's keeping cool that's the problem, and that's why they're wrapped in reflective foil.


Where you have a satellite that needs to stay really cool, such as the Herschel Space Observatory, the satellite has to carry a supply of liquid helium to cool itself. In fact the Herschel Space Observatory ran out of liquid helium at the end of April last year and can no longer operate.


It's certainly true that if you can stay out of sunlight space is a pretty cold place. If you could avoid all reflected light then in principle you could cool to the 2.7K temperature of the microwave background, and this is cold enough to use superconductors. However this isn't a practical way to operate most satellites.


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