The Penetrating particle ANalyzer (PAN) instrument for measurements of low energy cosmic rays

PAN is an instrument designed to precisely measure and monitor the flux, composition, and direction of highly penetrating particles (>100MeV/nucleon) in deep space and interplanetary missions with an energy resolution better than 10% for nuclei from H to Fe at 1GeV/n. The detector, limited to about 20kg in mass and 20W in power consumption, is based on the well-known magnetic spectrometer detection principle, and exploits the advantages provided by the integration of ultra-thin microstrip silicon detectors, hybrid silicon pixel detectors and silicon photomultipliers. This novel layout and detection concept facilitates the flexibility of the PAN instrument for a variegate spectrum of space missions and applications, and opens the possibility to deploy PAN instruments over a distributed array monitoring the radiation environment in different positions of the heliosphere. PAN will measure the properties of cosmic rays in the 100MeV/n - 20GeV/n energy range in deep space with unprecedented accuracy, providing novel results to investigate the mechanisms of origin, acceleration and propagation of galactic cosmic rays and of solar energetic particles, and producing unique information for solar system exploration missions.