“Satellites are mostly made of aluminum and aluminum is a superconductor,” Solter-Hunt said. "Superconductors are used for blocking, distorting or shielding of magnetic fields.
“Though 100 Kelvin is still pretty chilly – that’s about -280 degrees Fahrenheit – this is an enormous increase compared to bulk aluminum metal, which turns superconductive only near 1 Kelvin (-457 degrees Fahrenheit)” source
It doesn’t get that cold in LEO or GEO, so I’m not sure why the author of the paper is bringing that up. This paper and its author are looking more suspect by the minute.
I’m pretty sure that the environment inside the satellite gets nowhere near that cold. There are a lot of things like propellants and batteries which won’t work if it gets cold. They usually have an active thermal control system to regulate temperature.
“Though 100 Kelvin is still pretty chilly – that’s about -280 degrees Fahrenheit – this is an enormous increase compared to bulk aluminum metal, which turns superconductive only near 1 Kelvin (-457 degrees Fahrenheit)” source
It doesn’t get that cold in LEO or GEO, so I’m not sure why the author of the paper is bringing that up. This paper and its author are looking more suspect by the minute.
I’m pretty sure that the environment inside the satellite gets nowhere near that cold. There are a lot of things like propellants and batteries which won’t work if it gets cold. They usually have an active thermal control system to regulate temperature.