US Patent Issued to United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force on Sept. 29 for "Loop heat pipe for staged reentry spacecraft" (New Mexico Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 30 -- United States Patent no. 12,747,038, issued on Sept. 29, was assigned to United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force (Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio).

"Loop heat pipe for staged reentry spacecraft" was invented by Jonathan Allison (Albuquerque, N.M.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A frangible loop heat pipe provides a passive heat transfer system in a staged spacecraft having one or more separable modules. The frangible loop heat pipe is positioned within adjacent separable modules and is designed to separate such that a primary element remains with the command module of the spacecraft and a secondary element is jettisoned with an expendab...