An analysis has been made of the experimental results of Akimovet al on the inelastic cross sections of proton on proton and carbon targets in the energy range 20 to 600 GeV obtained from artificial earth satellites. It is found that an upper limit of 4% at 95% confidence level can be set on the fraction of deuterons relative to the flux of protons in the primary cosmic radiation at energies in the range 20 to 60 GeV. There is an indication for a rise of (29±7) mb in the inelastic cross section of proton against carbon in the energy range of 200 to 600 GeV over and above what is expected from Glauber’s theory. If this rise has to be interpreted as due to contamination from cosmic ray deuterons, the fraction of deuterons relative to protons needed is (15±4)% in this energy region.

From existing cosmic ray measurements of theinelastic collision cross sections of nucleons on nuclei of carbon, iron and lead in the range of energies 10² to 10⁴ GeV as well as the measurements of cross sections on air nuclei in the extensive air shower (EAS) regions (10⁵ to 10⁸ GeV), we conclude that the Glauber multiple scattering theory is adequate to account for the data. Recent suggestion of Maor and Nussinov to parametrize the nucleon-nucleon total cross section with a component growing proportional to ln²E (E is the incident energy) is at variance with the EAS data. However the data are consistent with a nucleon-nucleon total cross section rising no faster than lnE in these energy regions.