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Cooldown

Cooldown Time

MUSCAT cooldown from room temperature

The cooldown time to operating temperature for MUSCAT is approximately 80 hours from the point at which the pulse tube cooler is turned on. In the plot shown above the oscillations in the 4-K and 450-mK plates seen after 60 hours is due to the recycling of the continuous sorption coolers for the 1-K and 450-mK stages. The 450-mK stage temperature sensor has an upper limit on its calibration of approximately 250 K which leads to the static reading seen before 10 hours.