Fridge works in zero gravity

Full story: www.purdue.edu...
Standard refrigerators use vapor compression to cool down your food. But in space, there is no gravity to keep vapors and liquids secure. Purdue researchers have worked with NASA, Air Squared, and Whirlpool to create a prototype fridge that works in zero gravity, preserving food for potential long-term space flights.
Video credit: Alain Bucio/Air Squared Inc. airsquared.com
ZERO-G www.gozerog.com
Mechanical Engineering: purdue.edu/ME

[@deezynar]

It would be nice to see how it works.

[@nightdusk7]

Good

[@n3evpn3evp]

Surely a better (aka simpler) method would be to have a heat exchanger using the cold vacuum outside the ISS to cool an insulated box (aka refrigerator) inside the ISS.

[@LiefWezeman]

But since it's a vacuum, you may not lose much heat, even if the temperatures were low, just because of the low mass available to exchange heat with.
In fact you might actually warm the fluid doing this since it would presumably be exposed to much more harsh radiation.

[@n3evpn3evp]

@@LiefWezeman Unless it is in the sunlight, black body radiation would cool any coils outside the ISS just as the roof of a car will show frost in the morning despite the ambient temperature being > 32°F during the night.

[@LiefWezeman]

@@n3evpn3evp True, but would its trajectory not cause that same side of the ISS to be in direct sunlight at a different time of either year or day?
Perhaps use multiple, isolated coils that the fluid can be routed to when necessary to always utilize black body radiation regardless of your position relative to the sun?