Engineering topics

Joyce, R. M.

Publications and source records attributed to Joyce, R. M..

4 records

NASA NTRS1979

The Voyager Cosmic Ray Experiment

The Voyager Cosmic Ray Experiment includes seven dE/dx-E telescopes to measure the energy and charge of particles with atomic numbers from 1 to 26 in the energy range 1-500 MeV/nucleon and to measure electron energy in the range from 3 to 110 MeV. Isotopic composition of hydrogen through sulfur in the range up to 75 Mev/nucleon can also be resolved. The electronic systems include a dual-gain, charge sensitive preamplifier, 4096-channel pulse height analyzers for three parameter analysis of selected events, and an event type readout polling scheme to maximize the use of available telemetry space and to enhance the occurrence of rare events in the data. Details of the detector, electronic and mechanical design are presented.

Stilwell, D. E.↗

NASA NTRS1978

The Goddard Space Flight Center Solid State Spectrometer for the HEAO-B Mission

A non-dispersive, cryogenically-cooled X-ray detector system, to be flown as one of the focal-plane experiments on the High Energy Astrophysical Observatory-B, is described. The instrument is designed to measure the X-ray flux in the 500 eV to 5000 eV range with an energy resolution of 150 eV (pulser) and a temporal resolution approaching 2 microsec.

Joyce, R. M.↗

NASA NTRS1975

The Helios A/B cosmic ray instrument /E 7/

This paper describes the design and performance of a cosmic ray particle experiment for the Helios A/B space missions. This experiment had to be very lightweight, low power and electronically sophisticated in order to meet the spacecraft and scientific requirements, and very similar to those on the Pioneer 10 and 11 missions to Jupiter. Both sets of missions use several solid-state detector telescopes to measure protons from 100 KeV to 800 MeV per nucleon. Additionally, the Helios experiment includes a proportional counter to monitor the solar X-ray activity. The experiment has functioned quite well for 5 months in space, and large quantities of data are now being received.

Trainor, J. H.↗

NASA NTRS1975

The Pioneer 10/11 and Helios A/B cosmic ray instruments

This paper describes the design and performance of a set of cosmic-ray particle experiments for the Pioneer 10/11 and Helios A/B space missions. These experiments had to be very light-weight, low-power and electronically sophisticated in order to meet the spacecraft and scientific requirements. Both sets of missions use several solid-state detector telescopes to measure protons from 100 KeV to 800 MeV and heavier ions up to Neon at 200 MeV per nucleon. Good performance is required for 7-8 years, and the system must tolerate large vibration loads and ionizing radiation doses up to 500,000 rads.

Stilwell, D. E.↗