Engineering topics

Cros, A.

Publications and source records attributed to Cros, A..

4 records

NASA NTRS1992

Mars Observer magnetic fields investigation

The magnetic fields experiment designed for the Mars Observer mission will provide definitive measurements of the Martian magnetic field from the transition and mapping orbits planned for the Mars Observer. The paper describes the instruments (which include a classical magnetometer and an electron reflection magnetometer) and techniques designed to investigate the nature of the Martian magnetic field and the Mars-solar wind interaction, the mapping of crustal magnetic fields, and studies of the Martian ionosphere, which are activities included in the Mars Observer mission objectives. Attention is also given to the flight software incorporated in the on-board data processor, and the procedures of data processing and analysis.

Acuna, M. H.↗

NASA NTRS1987

The Giotto electron plasma experiment

The RPA-Copernic experiment aboard Giotto is described. The experiment is designed to measure the three-dimensional distributions of electrons between 10 eV and 30 keV (by the RPA-1 EESA spectrometer) and the composition and distribution, close to the comet, of thermal positive ions in the mass range 10-213 amu (by the RPA-2 PICCA electrostatic mass analyzer). Three microprocessors interface RPA-1 EESA with RPA-2 PICCA and with the spacecraft and perform extensive onboard data processing. The experiment was operated successfully aboard the spacecraft in September 1985 during the encounter of Giotto with the comet Halley. The results provided by the EESA-1 indicate that the solar wind interaction with the comet Halley forms a well-defined bow shock with features quite different from the features of the comet Giacobini-Zinner bow shock; the data also showed a presence of accelerated keV electrons at the cometary bow shock, upstream and in the transition region.

Reme, H.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Comet Halley-solar wind interaction from electron measurements aboard Giotto

The Giotto probe's three-dimensional electron spectrometer has obtained data that illustrate the complex interactions between comet Halley and the solar wind. As Giotto approached the comet, it traversed several regions exhibiting different plasma characteristics: a large upstream region, a foreshock, a bow wave whose apex lies at about 400,000 km, a transition region, a region permanently and strongly contaminated by cometary ions, a collision pause, and various inner regions up to the inner coma, including a region of depleted hot plasma.

Reme, H.↗

NASA NTRS1978

An experiment to study energetic particle fluxes in and beyond the earth's outer magnetosphere

This experiment is designed to take advantage of the ISEE Mother/Daughter dual spacecraft system to study energetic particle phenomena in the earth's outer magnetosphere and beyond. Large geometric factor fixed voltage electrostatic analyzers and passively cooled semiconductor detector telescopes provide high time resolution coverage of the energy range from 1.5 to 300 keV for both ions and electrons. Essentially identical instrumentation is placed on the two spacecraft to separate temporal from spatial effects in the observed particle phenomena.

Anderson, K. A.↗