ACE

The objective of the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) is to collect observations of particles of solar, interplanetary, interstellar, and galactic origins, spanning the energy range from that of KeV solar wind ions to galactic cosmic ray nuclei up to 600 MeV/nucleon. Definitive studies will be made of the abundances of essentially all isotopes from H to Zn (Z = 1-30), with exploratory isotope studies extending to Zr (Z = 40). The ACE payload includes six high resolution spectrometers, each designed to provide the optimum charge, mass, or charge-state resolution in its particular energy range. Each spectrometer has a geometry factor optimized for the expected flux levels, so as to provide a collecting power greater by a factor of 10-1000 times that of previous or planned experiments. The payload also includes three additional instruments of standard design to monitor energetic electrons, H and He ions, and a magnetometer. The ACE spacecraft is based on the design of the Charge Composition Explorer, built at JHU/APL for the Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Explorer (AMPTE) program. The spacecraft spin axis is pointed towards the Sun to within +/- 20 degrees, and it occupies a halo orbit about the L1 Earth-Sun libration point. Powered by solar cells, the spacecraft has a design life of at least five years, and it returns data in daily tape recorder dumps, received through NASA JPL's Deep Space Network and initially processed at NASA-GSFC. The average data telemetry rate is 6.7 Kbs.

高级组成探索器（ACE）的旨在收集来自太阳、行星际、星际和银河起源的粒子观测数据，能量范围涵盖从千电子伏特太阳风离子至每核子600兆电子伏特的银河宇宙射线核子。将进行关于从氢到锌（原子序数1-30）几乎所有同位素的丰度研究，探索性同位素研究将扩展至锆（原子序数40）。ACE的有效载荷包括六台高分辨率光谱仪，每台光谱仪均针对其特定能量范围设计，以提供最佳的电荷、质量或电荷状态分辨率。每台光谱仪均具有针对预期通量水平的优化几何因子，从而提供比之前或计划中的实验高出10-1000倍的收集能力。有效载荷还包括三个标准设计的额外仪器，用于监测高能电子、H和He离子，以及磁力计。ACE航天器基于电荷组成探索器（Charge Composition Explorer）的设计，该设计由约翰霍普金斯大学/应用物理实验室（JHU/APL）为主动磁层粒子追踪探索器（AMPTE）项目建造。航天器的自旋轴指向太阳，误差在±20度以内，并在地球-太阳拉格朗日点L1附近的环状轨道上运行。由太阳能电池供电的航天器设计寿命至少为五年，并通过每日磁带记录器数据回传，数据通过NASA喷气推进实验室（JPL）的深空网络接收，并在NASA戈达德太空飞行中心（GSFC）进行初步处理。平均数据遥测速率为6.7千比特每秒。