Rikor Moin-Harod Ihud built the refrigerator where the sensors of Mercury Messenger will be kept at a temperature of -200 degrees despite being close to the sun
A micro refrigerator of the type installed on the Mercury Messenger spacecraft. From the catalog of the Ricor company
This morning the Mercury Messenger spacecraft is scheduled to take off to Mercury (see separate news). Yesterday it was announced that due to the immense heat around the planet Mercury, Messenger will be exposed to sunlight for 30 continuous minutes at a time. The spacecraft, which weighs 1.2 tons, is coated with a special ceramic coating that will protect it and the seven scientific instruments mounted on it, including a gamma ray detector that will try to find out the composition of the materials on the surface of the planet Hema. This detector is cooled, using a special system of the Israeli "Recor" company, to a temperature of minus 200 degrees so that it is sensitive to radiation.
We spoke with Nachman Fondak, CEO of the Recor Ma'in Harod Ihud company, and first we asked him what you produce and what you sent into space?
Fundak: "We manufacture cryogenic refrigerators for thermal imaging systems. These are refrigerators whose function is to cool infrared sensors or for other wavelengths such as X-rays. It is usually necessary to cool these sensors to temperatures around minus 200 degrees Celsius. These are miniature refrigerators, and one of our manufactured refrigerators is on board the Messenger spacecraft, which is supposed to be launched to the planet Hama on August 3.8.04, XNUMX."
What is the size of the refrigerator?
"As mentioned, this is a miniature refrigerator, the size of a fist, weighing 400 grams. It is in the "micro refrigerator" category, so they chose it, because it is very small and very efficient."
And this is what is needed in such great proximity to the sun?
"For every mission in space, a refrigerator must be built that has very high survivability and reliability so that it survives the launch. In addition, these refrigerators have been certified by NASA in previous spaceships. As soon as we passed the fitness approval, they already ordered several refrigerators of this category for satellites orbiting Mars, the Moon and of course the Earth. The specification of the refrigerator was more ambitious this time than in the previous orders. In general, what characterizes these products is that they are regularly produced for national applications. The amount of testing and documentation required for space projects is much higher compared to national applications."
In which other spaceships have your refrigerators been installed?
"The first satellite on which our refrigerator was installed was Clementine, which orbited the moon, and which discovered the ice deposits at its poles, launched in 1996. The Messenger and another satellite CRISM on which our refrigerator is located were assembled by Johns Hopkins University. The European Space Agency also used it in the Vertis spacecraft in a thermal imaging system assembled by the Italian company Galileo. Over the past eight years we have sold miniature refrigerators to eighty space programs including a fire detection satellite in Brazil. Of course, we cannot forget the Technion satellite that was launched five years ago. The experimental systems are no longer working, the refrigerator is still working."
Tell us a little about the company?
"We employ 120 people at Kibbutz Ein Harod Ihud and operate mainly in the electro-optics market and the semiconductor industry market. Cooling Infrared sensors are used in military and civilian applications for thermal imaging systems, as well as in products for the semiconductor industry, mainly in cryogenic pumping. Our technological core is in the field of cryogenics and vacuum."
Additional articles on the subject:
Hema star - profile
Japan and Europe plan to land a spacecraft on Mars for the first time
NASA will launch a spacecraft to Mercury in about two weeks
The spacecraft was successfully launched to the planet Hema
