Pioneer P-30 - On-board Equipment

On-board Equipment

The scientific instruments consisted of an ion chamber and Geiger-Müller tube to measure total radiation flux, a proportional radiation counter telescope to measure high energy radiation, a scintillation counter to monitor low-energy radiation, a VLF receiver for natural radio waves, a transponder to study electron density, and part of the flux-gate and search coil magnetometers mounted on the instrument platform. The micrometeorite detector and sun scanner were mounted on the sphere. The difference between the payload of Pioneer P-30 and the earlier Pioneer P-3 was the replacement of the TV facsimile system on P-3 with a scintillation spectrometer to study the Earth's (and possible lunar) radiation belts, mounted on the instrument platform, and a plasma probe mounted on the sphere to measure energy and momentum distribution of protons above a few kilovolts to study the radiation effect of solar flares. The total mass of the science package including electronics and power supply was roughly 60 kg (130 lb). Total cost of the mission was estimated at 9-10 million dollars.