Passive Cryogenic Hardware for International Space Station Flight Experiments

The ability to preserve specimens at cryogenic temperatures is necessary for the analysis of specimens collected for many aspects of biological research. For spaceflight experiments flown on the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS), cryogenic preservation is important to avoid sample degradation before recovery. The increasing scientific demand for on-orbit cryogenic capability continues to stimulate further development of spaceflight hardware. The unique environment of a manned spacecraft presents many technical and operational challenges when designing and developing cryogenic systems. Power consumption and stowage volume are two such design limitations that illustrate the need for non-powered, passive cryogenic hardware. This paper will present an overview of passive cryogenic hardware that is currently in development by the Life Sciences Services Contract (LSSC) at Kennedy Space Center (KSC).