Vacuum Pumping System for Spaceborne Passive Hydrogen Masers

S.A. Wolf, D.U. Gubser, L.D. Jones

Abstract:	The ultimate utility of hydrogen masers as highly accurate clocks aboard navigation satellites depends on the feasibility of making the laser lightweight, compact, and capable of a 5-7 year unattended operation. We have designed and fabricated a vacuum pumping System for the SAO-NRL Advanced Development Model (ADM) maser that we believe meets these criteria. The pumping system was fabricated almost completely from 6AL-4V Titanium alloy and incorporates two (three years minimum) or four (six years minimum) sintered zirconium carbon getter pumps with integral activation heaters. These pumps were designed in collaboration with SAES getters and fabricated by them for these systems. In addition to these pumps, small getter ion pumps (1X/sec) are also appended to the system to pump the inert gases. In this paper we will illustrate the manner in which the getter pumps were mounted to insure that they will stand both the activation (900°C for 10 minutes) and the shock of launch. Data on the total hydrogen capacity and pumping speed of this system will also be presented.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 12th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting December 2 - 4, 1980 Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland
Pages:	581 - 589
Cite this article:	Wolf, S.A., Gubser, D.U., Jones, L.D., "Vacuum Pumping System for Spaceborne Passive Hydrogen Masers," Proceedings of the 12th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting, Greenbelt, Maryland, December 1980, pp. 581-589.
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