General information

Cosmos-1686 also known asTKS-4, was a heavily modified TKS spacecraft which docked unmanned to the Soviet space station Salyut 7 as part of tests to attach scientific expansion modules to stations in Earth orbit.

Date of launch

1985.09.27 08:41:42 UTC

General characteristics		Orbit parameters
Total weight	20000 kg/44092 lb	Apogee	284 km
Launch vehicle	"Proton-K 331-01"	Perigee	280 km
Launch type	Ground	Inclination	51,6o
Active life period	1 year

Equipment characteristics
Scientific equipment weight	1255 kg/2767 lb

Purpose

Cosmos-1686 NSSDC / COSPAR ID: 1985-086A NORAD ID: 16095.

It was launched from Baiconur cosmodrom (USSR) and it was orbiting at altitudes 350 km (till November 1986) and 480 km (since December 1986). Cosmos1686 data collected from February to December 1986 is available. Instrument package ELECTRON-4 (developed in SINP MSU) onboard Cosmos-1686 is capable of measuring high energy electrons with energy >40 keV in 6 energy ranges and protons with energy >0.9 MeV in 3 energy ranges.

ELECTRON-4 Instrument Package

Dr. Yu.V. Mineev

The ELECTRON-4 instrument package onboard COSMOS-1686 satellite was created in D.V. Skobeltsin Institute of Nuclear Physics Moscow State University (SINP MSU). ELECTRON-4 consists of two simple instruments: ELECTRON-4A1 and ELECTRON-4A2. The instruments are oriented in two orthogonal directions. The orientation of COSMOS-1686 satellite is not fixed so the orientation of the detectors is undefined.

ELECTRON-4A1 and ELECTRON-4A2 consist of a similar telescopes for observation of energetic charged particle spectra, and of similar packages of gas-discharge counters for observation of low energy particles. Each telescope consists of 4 axial semiconductor n-p detectors (n-p1, n-p2, n-p3 and n-p4 50mm, 2mm, 2mm and 2mm thick respectively) under aluminium passive shield (about 2.7 g/cm² thick) with field of view about 20 degrees. The geometric factor of each telescope is 0.1 cm²×sr. The gas-discharge counter package consists of two gas-discharge counters (gdc1 and gdc2) under different passive shields (15 mg/cm² and 1.1 mg/cm², respectively).

Electrons

Electron energy [MeV]	Field of view [degrees]	Effective Geometric Factor [cm2×sr]	Detector	Passive shield [g/cm2]
Ee>0.04 + Ep>0.5	46	0.04	GDC1	0.81
Ee>0.1 + Ep>2.0	46	0.04	GDC2	0.81
0.3÷0.6	20	0.08	n-p2 + n-p3	2.7
0.6÷0.9	20	0.08	n-p2 + n-p3	2.7
0.9÷1.2	20	0.06	n-p2 + n-p3	2.7
1.2÷2.0	20	0.05	n-p2 + n-p3	2.7

Protons

Proton energy [MeV]	Field of view [degrees]	Effective Geometric Factor [cm2×sr]	Detector	Passive shield [g/cm2]
0.9÷8.0	20	0.1	n-p1	2.7
2.0÷8.0	20	0.1	n-p1 + n-p2 + n-p3 - n-p4	2.7
Ep>30.0 + Ee>2.0*	20	0.1	n-p4	0.81

* this channel of telescope on ELECTRON-4A2 is not operating.

Data available from 01.02.1986 to 11.12.1986

Time interval

:

:

Output type

TableGraphicFile

Data channels

Protons 2-8 MeV I Protons 0.9-8 MeV I Protons 0.9-8 MeV II Protons 2-8 MeV II Protons Ep>30 MeV Spacecraft latitude [degrees] Spacecraft longitude [degrees] Spacecraft altitude [km] B-coordinate [nT] L-shell [RE]

Electrons 0.3-0.6 MeV I Electrons 0.6-0.9 MeV I Electrons 0.9-1.2 MeV I Electrons 1.2-2 MeV I Electrons Ee>40 keV, Protons Ep>0.5 MeV I Electrons Ee>0.1 MeV, Protons Ep>2 MeV I Electrons 0.3-0.6 MeV II Electrons 0.6-0.9 MeV II Electrons 0.9-1.2 MeV II Electrons 1.2-2 MeV II Electrons Ee>40 keV, Protons Ep>0.5 MeV II Electrons Ee>0.1 MeV, Protons Ep>2 MeV II Spacecraft latitude [degrees] Spacecraft longitude [degrees] Spacecraft altitude [km] B-coordinate [nT] L-shell [RE]