ATS-6 NOAA Low Energy Proton Experiment

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Low Energy Proton Experiment was included as part of the Applications Technology Satellite-6 (ATS-6) Environmental Measurements Experiments (EME) payload to investigate those protons thought to be responsible for the geomagnetic storm-time extraterrestrial ring current and to search for the existence of energetic heavy ions trapped or energized within the Earth´s magnetosphere. The experiment employs four solid state detector telescopes consisting of two elements each in order to accomplish its scientific goals. This paper is a detailed description of the experimental techniques, instrument hardware , and calibration procedures involved in the fabrication of this scientific experiment for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) ATS-6 satellite program.