Particle Environment Package (PEP)

PEP

The Particle Environment Package (PEP)

The PEP instrument package combines remote global imaging with in situ measurements in order

  • to study the atmospheres, the plasma environments, and the magnetospheric interactions, and
  • to determine the global surface composition and chemistry, especially as related to habitability.

The PEP experiment is a suite of 6 instruments, which are able to measure neutral gas, thermal plasma, positive and negative ions, electrons, and energetic neutral atoms in the energy range from 1 eV to 5 MeV. 

The instruments are organised into two groups: PEP-Lo and PEP-Hi

  • PEP-Lo is organised in two units: The Nadir Unit, which houses three instruments: NIM, JNA and JEI, and the Zenith unit, which houses the instrument JDC.
  • PEP-Hi consists of the two instruments JENI and JOE, being located on the nadir and zentith face of the spacecraft, respectively.


University of Bern is responsible for the entire mechanical system engineering and qualification of the PEP-Lo Nadir Unit. This includes the design and fabrication of the unit’s mechanical parts, the assembly and integration of the participating instrument and the verification at system level.

The instrument suite of the two PEP groups: PEP-Lo and PEP-Hi
The instrument suite of the two PEP groups: PEP-Lo and PEP-Hi

Instruments

  • JOEE: the Jovian Energetic Electrons; measures energetic electrons; developed by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory https://www.jhuapl.edu/ 
  • JENI: the Jovian Energetic Neutrals and Ions; measures High-energy ENA and energetic ions; developed by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory  https://www.jhuapl.edu/ 
  • JEI: the Jovian Electrons and Ions; measures Plasma electrons; developed by the Max-Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Germany https://www.mps.mpg.de/en
  • JDC: the Jovian Dynamics and Composition; measures Plasma positive ions; developed by the Swedish Institute of Space Physics IRF https://www2.irf.se/
  • JNA: the Jovian Neutrals Analyser; measures Plasma ENA; developed by the Swedish Institute of Space Physics IRF https://www2.irf.se/ and hardware contribution by University of Bern, Space Physics
  • NIM: Neutral gas and Ion Mass spectrometer; measures neutral atmospheric gas and ionospheric ions; developed by the University of Bern, Physics Institute