Ion Solar Probe Analyzer Design, Operation, and Calibration

The Parker Solar Probe (PSP) mission is a heliospheric satellite that will orbit the Sun closer than any prior mission to date with a perihelion of 35 solar radii (R_S) and an aphelion of 9.8 R_S. PSP includes the Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons (SWEAP) instrument suite, which in turn consists of four instruments: the Solar Probe Cup (SPC) and three Solar Probe ANalyzers (SPAN) for ions and electrons. The SPAN ion analyzer main mode of operation consists of an electrostatic analyzer (ESA) at its aperture followed by a Time-of-Flight section to measure the energy and mass per charge (m/q) of the ambient ions, respectively. The SPAN ion main objective is to measure solar wind ions within an energy range of 5 eV - 20 keV, a mass/q between 1-60 m/q and a field of view of 247.5^ox120^o. The instrument was launched from Florida in August of 2018. During its early operational phase it was able to return a set of telemetry blocks for analysis, which includes a brief tilting of the spacecraft that exposed the instrument to the full solar wind. Here we present the first set of science data returned from the commissioning period and additional information regarding the health and status of the instrument.