Maintaining low temperature payloads through atmospheric reentry and ground recovery is becoming a larger focus in the space program as work in biology, cryogenic and other temperature dependent sciences becomes a higher goal on the International Space Station (ISS) and extraterrestrial surfaces. Paragon analyzes reentry system thermal control, particularly technology regarding small thermally controlled payloads anticipated for use in sample return from the International Space Station.
Advances in computer technologies and manufacturing processes allow creation of highly sophisticated components in compact platform. For example, a small scale satellite, such as the CubeSat, can now be used for scientific research in space rather than big scale project like the International Space Station (ISS). Recently a team of undergraduate and graduate students at SJSU has the opportunity to collaborate on designing and building a miniature size CubeSat with the dimension of 10x10x10 cm.
Recent years have witnessed more improvement to the SINDA/FLUINT thermohydraulic analyzer than at any other time in its long history. These improvements have included not only expansions in analytic power, but also the additions of high-level modules that offer revolutions in thermal/ fluid engineering itself.