Galileo's solid state imager fends off radiation
Abstract
The Galileo spacecraft's Solid State Imager (SSI) is a slow scan TV camera consisting of a 150-cm telescope and an 800 x 800-element, virtual phase CCD which will increase light sensitivity by 100 times over the vidicon tube camera used on Voyager missions. The CCD will be shielded by a 1-cm thick tantalum layer that covers the sensor, and the light-admitting aperture will be covered with a quartz plug. Only about one electron in 10,000 will penetrate the shield. The CCD will thereby receive 2500 rads during the 20-month mission, although it can withstand at least 10,000 rads.
- Publication:
-
Aerospace America
- Pub Date:
- September 1984
- Bibcode:
- 1984AeAm...22...29L
- Keywords:
-
- Galileo Spacecraft;
- Radiation Shielding;
- Solid State Devices;
- Television Cameras;
- Charge Coupled Devices;
- Ion Implantation;
- Optical Measuring Instruments;
- Telescopes;
- Spacecraft Instrumentation