Jacob I. Trombka

Comparison between predictions and observations of induced radioactive background in interplanetary missions

Predictions have been made of the cosmic-ray induced radioactivity in germanium, bismuth germanate and sodium iodide and are compared with data obtained from the Mars Observer and Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous missions. The energies of the dominant line features are well predicted. Quantitative comparisons have been made for the germanium detector on Mars Observer and predictions based on spallation by primaries are generally in agreement, with observations to better than a factor of two. Pre-flight predictions are presented for the bismuth germanate detector on the Lunar Prospector mission.

Burst detection capability of the Mars Observer gamma‐ray spectrometer

This paper describes the gamma-ray burst detection capability of the gamma-ray spectrometer on board the Mars Observer spacecraft. The instrument is designed to respond to significant bursts by suspending its observation of the martian surface in favor of optimizing the collection of pre-burst, burst, and post-burst data. The results are expected to contribute to our understanding of gamma-ray bursts through a high-energy resolution search for line emission, by the examination of spectral shapes and by comprising one leg of an arrival time network to determine the direction of origin.