SPARK CHAMBER

Developed by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

Balloon launched on 8/7/1966, from Fort Churchill Airport, Manitoba, Canada

Purpose of the flight and payload description

The scientific purpose of this flight was to measure the energy spectrum and angular distribution of protons above 60 Mev and alpha particles above 240 Mev in the primary cosmic rays and cosmic ray albedo using a digital spark chamber and associated scintillation counters. The instrumentation was composed of four gaps containing two plates each, a plate being made up of 5-mil wires strung 16 to the inch on an insulating frame; adjacent plates were strung in mutually orthogonal directions. Each wire passed through a magnetic core which was flipped by the spark current, making it possible to examine the state of the core system of each plate electronically to determine the particle path. Planar plastic scintillators on each outside face of the spark gaps triggered the spark-chamber high voltage, and were also used to obtain particle energy information from pulse height analysis.

Details of the balloon flight

Balloon launched on: 8/7/1966 at 8:01 utc
Launch site: Fort Churchill Airport, Manitoba, Canada  
Balloon launched by: Raven Industries Inc.
Balloon manufacturer/size/composition: Zero Pressure Balloon Raven 5.000.000 cuft (0.75 MIL)
Flight identification number: Raven 1177-N
End of flight (L for landing time, W for last contact, otherwise termination time): 8/7/1966 at 23:13 utc
Balloon flight duration (F: time at float only, otherwise total flight time in d:days / h:hours or m:minutes - ): 15 h 15 m
Landing site: At coordinates 59° 49' N / 103º 32' W, Canada
Campaign: SKYHOOK CHURCHILL 1966  
Payload weight: 675

Successful flight

Alike the instrument model flown from Palestine TX a month before that only could see in the vertical, this second flight of the spark chamber included a motor-driven gear system to provide omnidirectional coverage of the sky. A large amount of data was obtained on the energy spectrum and angular distribution of protons above 50 and alpha-particles above 200 million electron volts in energy.

External references

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