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Requirements for cooling and power consumption in space platforms are subject to significantly greater constraints than the requirements for terrestrial applications. Existing cooling systems incorporate various mechanisms including thermoelectric (Peltier) cooling elements, radiative cooling, and phase-change compressor-based systems. This paper outlines an alternative mechanism currently in development called “thermotunneling”. This mechanism exploits electron tunneling across a vacuum gap of ∼10nm to effect a temperature differential with high efficiency. When complete, these devices (“Cool Chips”) are expected to offer a compact, lightweight, low maintenance and highly efficient (in excess of 50% of Carnot Efficiency) thermal management solution ideally suited for the needs of aerospace applications. © 2004 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]