The Extraterrestrial Physics division of the Institute for Experimental and Applied Physics of the University of Kiel (CAU), Germany, has a greater than 30 year history in building energetic particle instruments for space missions and has been PI institution for Helios E6, Ulysses/COSPIN/KET, Galileo/EPI, SOHO/COSTEP/EPHIN, STEREO/IMPACT/SEPT, and the DOSTEL experiments on MIR, Space Shuttle, and ISS.

One branch of the extraterrestrial physics group is the ‘aircrew and space dosimetry group’. This group has been in existence since the early 70s and began their experience in space dosimetry on Apollo 17. Dosimetry measurements have been performed with passive nuclear track detectors and since 1995 with the active instrument DOSTEL. The DOSimetry TELescope DOSTEL consists of two planar silicon detectors forming a telescope. An advanced version of DOSTEL is also part of MATROSHKA. The Silicon Scintillator Devices (SSDs) measuring organ doses inside the MATROSHKA phantom were also developed and built in Kiel.

The Kiel Neutron Monitor also belongs to the extraterrestrial physics group and provides reliable measurements of the galactic cosmic rays and GLEs since 1956.