The Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) is an Explorer mission that is
being managed by the Office of Space Science Mission and Payload
Development Division of the National Aeronautics and Space
... Administration (NASA). The primary purpose of ACE is to determine and
compare the isotopic and elemental composition of several distinct
samples of matter, including the solar corona, the interplanetary
medium, the local interstellar medium, and Galactic matter.
The spacecraft is 1.6 meters across and 1 meter high, not including
the four solar arrays and the magnetometer booms attached to two of
the solar panels. It will weigh 785 kg, which includes 189 kg of
hydrazine fuel for orbit insertion and maintenance. The solar arrays
will generate about 500 watts of power at the beginning of life. The
spacecraft will spin at 5 rpm, with the spin axis generally pointed
along the Earth-sun line and most of the scientific instruments on the
top (sunward) deck. The instruments that are carried on ACE are as follows:
Cosmic Ray Isotope Spectrometer (CRIS), Electon,Proton,and Alpha Monitor
(EPAM), Magnetometer (MAG), Solar Energetic Particle Ionic Charge Analyzer
(SEPICA), Solar Isotope Spectrometer (SIS), Solar Wind Electon, Proton, and
Alpha Monitor (SWEPAM), Solar Wind Ionic Charge Spectrometer (SWICS),
Solar Wind Ion Mass Spectrometer (SWIMS), and Ultra Low Energy Isotope
Spectrometer (ULEIS).
ACE launched on a McDonnell-Douglas Delta II 7920 launch vehicle on
August 25, 1997 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
In order to get away from the effects of the Earth's magnetic field,
the ACE spacecraft has travelled almost a million miles (1.5 million
km) from the Earth to the Earth-sun libration point (L1). By orbiting
the L1 point, ACE will stay in a relatively constant position with
respect to the Earth as the Earth revolves around the sun.