Spectrometer for cosmic and solar protons experiment S 72 aboard the satellite ESRO 2

The authors describe an experiment designed for the spectrometry of charged particles, and intended for the european satellite ESRO II, the launch of which is planned for may 1968. The polar orbit of this satellite will enable the experiment to measure, depending on the geomagnetic latitude, either the energy of solar protons, or the spectrum of the protons of the internal Van Allen belt, or even the spectrum of the abundance of galactic nuclei whose charge is smaller than 6. The equipment is built in two parts: - 1) a sensor including a telescope of solid state detectors of large area (lithium drifted silicon) and the preamplifiers; - 2) an electronic unit including the amplifiers, the pulse height discriminators and the coincidence circuits, the analog-to-digital converter which encodes the energy loss of an incident particle in one of the detectors, the sealer for counting the flux of the particles, and the interface to the telemetry system of the satellite. The equipment weights 1350 grams, drains 350 mW and is designed for normal operation from -20 C to +50 C. After the discussion of the design principles and after the description of the circuits and the explanation of their operation, emphasis will be laid on how have been met the requirements specific to space electronics; lightness, low power drain, vibration strength, wide range of working temperatures and above all reliability. The modifications brought to the flight model F-2 after the failure of the launch of the model F-1 in may 1967 are also reported. (authors)