Automatic Range Switching of Instrumentation in Space Vehicles for Increased Accuracy

This paper describes an instrument, suitable for space flight, which automatically switches the range of a measuring instrument, and thus makes possible accurate measurements of electronic signals that vary by several orders of magnitude. The accurate measurement of current, voltage, or pulses, etc., that vary by several orders of magnitude has been a difficult problem. Wide dynamic ranges of this type are necessary, for instance, in accurate mass spectrometer or density measurements in the upper atmosphere. The instrument described accomplishes this with low power and in a small space by computer-type circuitry.