Ariel VI
Ariel VI, known pre-launch as UK-6, was a British and American satellite launched in 1979 as part of the Ariel programme. It was operated by the Science Research Council, which became the Science and Engineering Research Council in 1981. Ariel VI was used for astronomical research and provided data until February 1982. It was the last Ariel satellite to be launched.
Satellite design
Operations
The spacecraft was manufactured by the Marconi Company, and had a mass of.Sensors
The primary experiment, the cosmic ray detector, could sense heavy cosmic rays with an atomic number over 30. The diameter acrylic-lined aluminum sphere was filled with a gaseous oxygen, nitrogen, and helium mixture. Heavy cosmic rays penetrated the sphere and excited the gas to produce scintillation light; the acrylic produced Cherenkov radiation. These ultraviolet emissions were detected with 16 photo-multipliers. Data processing to separate the two different types of ultraviolet emissions was performed by comparing the brightness and duration of the emissions. The amplitude of the signal was used to determine the atomic number of the cosmic ray. Unlike the X-ray experiments, this experiment had no pointing requirements other than what was required for thermal control.The two other experiments were X-ray telescopes. One detected low-energy X-rays and the other high-energy X-rays.