A low energy ion beam facility for mass spectrometer calibration: First results.

Abstract

The exploration of habitable environments around the gas giants in the Solar System is of major interest in upcoming planetary missions. Exactly this theme is addressed by the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) mission of the European Space Agency (ESA), which will characterise Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto as planetary objects and potential habitats. The NIM, Neutral gas and Ion Mass spectrometer, is part of the PEP experiment and will be used to measure the chemical composition of the exospheres of the icy Jovian moons. We designed and developed a calibration facility (SATANS, Supersonic cATion and ANion Source), especially for use with the NIM instrument. In a first step, we established a low energy ion beam for positive ions in the range of 0.01-30 eV. Then we conducted beam velocity calibrations with a velocity uncertainty <5%, which provided exact settings and formulas for the cation beam velocity of different gas mixtures in the range of 1-15 km/s. In addition, first results are obtained by using the NIM prototype for direct ion beam measurements under realistic JUICE mission conditions, i.e., for velocities from 1 up to 7 km/s and even more.