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Ginga Technology

Ginga integrated onto the rocket
Ginga integrated onto the rocket
Integration of the Ginga satellite into its launch rocket
Integration of the Ginga satellite into its launch rocket

Ginga carried three different instruments that allowed it to see the sky in X-rays ranging from 1 to 500 keV. The Large Area Proportional Counter (LAC) and the All-Sky Monitor (ASM) were both proportional counter detectors, with the LAC being the largest X-ray detector flown in space up to the time of Ginga.

  • Large Area Proportional Counter (LAC): the main science instrument on Ginga, it is made up of 8 proportional counter units that can detect X-rays from 1.5 to 37 keV.
  • All-Sky Monitor (ASM): two proportional counter units that observe a large portion of the sky for X-rays in the range of 1 to 20 keV.
  • Gamma-ray Burst Detector (GBD): two detectors, one proportional counter and one solid state detector, to detect and record the spectra of gamma-ray bursts in the energy range of 1.5 to 500 keV.

If you're wondering why Ginga looks different from the other satellites highlighted on this site, check out the X-ray Collimators page to learn about Ginga's optics.