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MRIs are big electromagnets and they use big power and produce big heat. In space you have no convection so you must radiate away all of your heat which is chal
by verall 5y ago
MRIs are big electromagnets and they use big power and produce big heat. In space you have no convection so you must radiate away all of your heat which is challenging. Maybe you can make something better with superconductors that doesn't use much power, but I don't think it exists yet.
- ben_w 5y agoSuperconductors famously don’t produce heat. Putting a superconducting magnet in shade (though that includes from the Earth not just from Sol) will keep it cool once it gets cool. This is what the James Webb is going to be doing, though for non-superconducting reasons.
- myself248 5y agoUm, what? The magnet in an MRI is a superconducting electromagnet. It needs power once, to charge it up, then you close the loop and it just sits there being a superconducting electromagnet. The only power used continuously is for cooling, which is to say, when ambient room heat leaks in, it has to be carried out again. The magnet itself does not produce heat; it has no electrical resistance because it is a superconductor.