Authors: J. A. Gilbert (Univ of Michigan), S. T. Lepri (Univ of Michigan), E. Fischer (Univ of Michigan), J. M. Raines (Univ of Michigan), G. Gloeckler (Univ of Michigan)

The Solar wind and Pickup Ion Composition Energy Spectrometer (SPICES) is a time-of-flight–energy spectrometer currently under development. It is optimized for measuring heliospheric ions with low charge states (low-q), such as interstellar pickup ions (PUIs) and low-q ions of solar and planetary origin. The basic principles of the SPICES design are modeled after heritage instruments that combine an electrostatic analyzer (ESA) with an acceleration region and a time-of-flight (TOF) analyzer to ultimately determine incident ions’ mass, charge, and energy. The ESA portion of SPICES is explained herein, including its design and performance.