ABSTRACT
Two camera/photometers were included as part of the Induced Environment Contamination Monitor on STS-2, -3, -4, and -9 orbital missions to record photographically Shuttle-induced particulate and background contamination. The cameras collected stereoscopic data continuously during the on-orbit phases of these missions making exposures every 150 s. The results recorded throughout a 32 degrees field-of-view indicate high particle concentrations during early mission operations. These decay to a quiescent rate of 500 particles of >10-microm radius observed per orbit. Preliminary size and velocity distributions of measured particles are presented as are measurements of background brightness due to unresolved particles in the visible spectral region.
ABSTRACT
The atmospheric emissions photometric imaging experiment was flown on Spacelab 1 to study faint natural and artificial atmospheric emission phenomena. The instrument imaged optical emission in the region 2000 to 7500 angstroms with a television system consisting of two optical channels, one wide-angle and one telephoto. A third optical channel imaged onto the photochathode of a microchannel plate photomultiplier tube that has 100 discrete anodes. A hand-held image intensifier camera with an objective grating permitted spectral analysis of the earth's airglow and the shuttle glow. Preliminary data show magnesium ion emission features in the lower ionosphere as well as the spececraft glow spectrum.
