AMPTE (Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Explorer) was a joint US - German - UK
endeavor with the US providing the Charge Composition Explorer (CCE),
an equatorial mission with apogee close to 8 Re, with Germany providing the Ion
Release Module (IRM) with an apogee close to 20 Re and the UK providing the UK
Subsatellite (UKS) in the same orbit as the IRM. It was designed to
study the access of solar-wind ions to the magnetosphere, the convective-diffusive
transport and energization of magnetospheric particles, and the interactions of plasmas in
space.
The IRM (Ion Release Module) provided multiple ion releases in the solar wind, the
magnetosheath, and the magnetotail, with in situ diagnostics of each. The IRM spacecraft
was spin-stabilized at 15 rpm. Its spin axis was initially in the ecliptic plane, but
later it was adjusted with magnetic torqueing to be at right angles to the ecliptic. The
power system was a 60 W solar array with redundant batteries. There was a redundant S-band
telemetry and telecommand system. Telemetry rates could be chosen between 1 and 8 kbps.
For injection into the final orbit, the IRM carried its own kick stage. In addition to the
ion releases, the instruments on board the s/c monitored the ambient, magnetosphere, but
with the data acquisition confined to the passes that could be tracked in real time from
Germany. The spacecraft became inoperational as of 14 August 1986.
Following experiments were mounted on the IRM:
- Ion Release Experiment
- Triaxial Fluxgate Magnetometer: 0.1 - 60,000 nT, 3-50 Hz
- 30-channel, 3-D Plasma Analyzer. e: 15 eV -30 keV. ions: 20 eV/q-40 keV.q
- Mass Separation Ion Spectrometer, MSIS. H through Ba: 0.5 eV/q-14 keV.q
- 64 channel, E- and B-field Plasma Wave Spectrometer. E:0.0-5.6 MHz;B:30 Hz-1.5 MHz
- Suprathermal Energy Ionic Charge Analyzer. H through Fe:5-270 keV.q; e:35-207 keV.
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