A digital system for accurate time sector division of a spin-stabilized vehicle

Abstract

This paper describes an aspect system flown on PIONEERS VI and VII2 which incorporates an extremely accurate adaptive digital computer in order to define rigorously equal time intervals which are submultiples of the spacecraft spin period. The several submultiples which compose the complete spin period exhibit equality to within 2.5 parts in 105. This system has potential applications in other experiments involving the study of the angular dependence of cosmic radiation and other physical phenomena being measured by a single directional detector mounted on spin-stabilized spacecraft. Included here are the scientific goals for this experiment, system restraints, and the generalized system operation. Some details on specific logic and hardware implementation for the Pioneer experiments are included along with in-flight performance evaluation of the system aboard PIONEER VI.