Inflight performance of the position sensitive proportional counter on board the X-ray astronomy satellite ROSAT

• Published in: IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States) 1992-08, Vol.39 (4), p.976-980
• Main Authors: Pfeffermann, E., Briel, U.G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 320201 > Energy Conservation, Consumption, & Utilization-- Transportation-- Air & Aerospace; Astronomical and space-research instrumentation; Astronomy; Cathodes; COSMIC RAY SOURCES; COSMIC X-RAY SOURCES; Counting circuits; DETECTION; Detectors; Earth, ocean, space; ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION; ENERGY RANGE; Energy resolution; Exact sciences and technology; Fundamental astronomy and astrophysics. Instrumentation, techniques, and astronomical observations; INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; Instruments; KEV RANGE; KEV RANGE 01-10; MEASURING INSTRUMENTS; Mirrors; ORBITING SOLAR OBSERVATORIES; PERFORMANCE TESTING; POSITION SENSITIVE DETECTORS; PROPORTIONAL COUNTERS; RADIATION DETECTION; RADIATION DETECTORS; SATELLITES; Space applications; Telescopes; TESTING 440100 > Radiation Instrumentation; X rays; X-RAY DETECTION; X-ray imaging
• ISSN: 0018-9499; 1558-1578
• DOI: 10.1109/23.159744

Two redundant position-sensitive proportional counters (PSPC) operating in the energy range from 0.1 to 2.4 keV were the prime focal plane instruments on board the X-ray astronomy satellite ROSAT. ROSAT was launched on June 1, 1990 and operated very efficiently. The authors report the orbit performance of the PSPC. Apart from its good energy and position resolution the detector had a very high-charged particle background rejection efficiency of 99.8%. The gas gain of the detector was very stable. Short-time variations due to thermal variations over one orbit were less than 1%. The long-term drift over one month was 0.5%.< >