Hyperion Cryostat
The cryostat is the outer vacuum enclosure that keeps the superconducting magnets cold by isolating them from ambient heat.
The cold envelope
Hyperion's magnets are superconducting and must run at cryogenic temperature. The cryostat is the large outer vacuum vessel that surrounds the entire cold structure, magnets and their supports, and holds a vacuum around them. That vacuum is the insulation: with no gas to conduct heat, ambient warmth cannot easily reach the cold mass.
Why it is separate from the vacuum vessel
- The vacuum vessel holds vacuum around the plasma, on the inside of the magnets.
- The cryostat holds vacuum around the magnets, on the outside.
- Two nested vacuum spaces serve two different purposes: plasma confinement and thermal insulation.
Thermal shielding
Inside the cryostat, thermal shields intercept radiant heat before it reaches the coldest components, and the magnet supports are designed to conduct as little heat as possible from the warm outside world to the cold magnets. Every path for heat to enter is a load the cryogenic plant must remove, so the cryostat and its internals are engineered to minimize those paths.
In the model
The cryostat is the outermost large shell in the model, enclosing everything except the external ports and services. Selecting it and switching to cutaway reveals the cold structure inside; hiding it exposes the magnets and vessel for inspection.
Relation to cooling
The cryostat defines the boundary the cryogenic system works across. See the cryogenic cooling model and the vacuum vessel it encloses.