Thermal Property Measurements of Al-Alloy for Space Cryogenic Missions

Abstract In space cryogenic missions, the thermophysical properties of materials must be studied and measured to establish a highly reliable cooling chain. An Al-alloy is a primary material in cryogenic thermal structural designs and is particularly used for providing high thermal conductance of thermal shields and thermal straps. We measured low-temperature properties (the thermal conductivity and the electrical resistivity) of several Al-alloys and found that A6063 had a lower thermal conductivity than that reported previously. We also found that the Al-alloy ST-60, which has equivalent thermal conductivity as pure aluminum, has higher thermal conductivity than A6061 and A6063, and the material is a good candidate for the space cryogenic design at the temperature range between 4K and 300K. These results are critical for the thermal study of upcoming next-generation space astronomy missions, such as LiteBIRD, SPICA and ATHENA.