The CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) for high-energy astroparticle physics on the International Space Station

The CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) is a space experiment, currently under development by Japan in collaboration with Italy and the United States, which will measure the flux of cosmic-ray electrons (and positrons) up to 20 TeV energy, of gamma rays up to 10 TeV, of nuclei with Z from 1 to 40 up to 1 PeV energy, and will detect gamma-ray bursts in the 7 keV to 20 MeV energy range during a 5 year mission. These measurements are essential to investigate possible nearby astrophysical sources of high energy electrons, study the details of galactic particle propagation and search for dark matter signatures. The main detector of CALET, the Calorimeter, consists of a module to identify the particle charge, followed by a thin imaging calorimeter (3 radiation lengths) with tungsten plates interleaving scintillating fibre planes, and a thick energy measuring calorimeter (27 radiation lengths) composed of lead tungstate logs. The Calorimeter has the depth, imaging capabilities and energy resolution necessary for excellent separation between hadrons, electrons and gamma rays. The instrument is currently being prepared for launch (expected in 2015) to the International Space Station ISS, for installation on the Japanese Experiment Module - Exposure Facility (JEM-EF)

The CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) for high-energy astroparticle physics on the International Space Station

The CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) is a space experiment, currently under development by Japan in collaboration with Italy and the United States, which will measure the flux of cosmic-ray electrons (and positrons) up to 20 TeV energy, of gamma rays up to 10 TeV, of nuclei with Z from 1 to 40 up to 1 PeV energy, and will detect gamma-ray bursts in the 7 keV to 20 MeV energy range during a 5 year mission. These measurements are essential to investigate possible nearby astrophysical sources of high energy electrons, study the details of galactic particle propagation and search for dark matter signatures. The main detector of CALET, the Calorimeter, consists of a module to identify the particle charge, followed by a thin imaging calorimeter (3 radiation lengths) with tungsten plates interleaving scintillating fibre planes, and a thick energy measuring calorimeter (27 radiation lengths) composed of lead tungstate logs. The Calorimeter has the depth, imaging capabilities and energy resolution necessary for excellent separation between hadrons, electrons and gamma rays. The instrument is currently being prepared for launch (expected in 2015) to the International Space Station ISS, for installation on the Japanese Experiment Module - Exposure Facility (JEM-EF)

High Energy Astro-particle Physics with the CALET Experiment

The CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) will be installed on the Exposure Facility of the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM-EF) on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2014 where it will measure the cosmic-ray fluxes for five years. Its main scientific goals are to search for dark matter, investigate the mechanism of cosmic-ray acceleration and propagation in the Galaxy and discover possible astrophysical sources of high-energy electrons nearby the Earth. The instrument, under construction, consists of two layers of segmented plastic scintillators for the cosmic-ray charge identification (CHD), a 3 X0-thick tungsten-scintillating fiber imaging calorimeter (IMC) and a 27 X0-thick lead-tungstate calorimeter (TASC). The CHD can provide single-element separation in the interval of atomic number Z from 1 to 40, while IMC and TASC can measure the energy of cosmic-ray particles with excellent resolution in the range from few GeV up to several hundreds of TeV. Moreover, the fine granularity of IMC and TASC allows to image the longitudinal and lateral development of showers, a key issue to provide high electron/hadron discrimination. In this paper, we will review the status of the mission, the instrument configuration and its expected performance, and the CALET capability to measure the different components of the cosmic radiation

Overview of the CALET Mission to the ISS

The CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) mission is being developed as a standard payload for the Exposure Facility of the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM/EF) on the International Space Station (ISS). The instrument consists of a segmented plastic scintillator charge measuring module, an imaging calorimeter consisting of 8 scintillating fiber planes with a total of 3 radiation lengths of tungsten plates interleaved with the fiber planes, and a total absorption calorimeter consisting of crossed PWO logs with a total depth of 27 radiation lengths. The major scientific objectives for CALET are to search for nearby cosmic ray sources and dark matter by carrying out a precise measurement of the electron spectrum (1 GeV - 20 TeV) and observing gamma rays (10 GeV - 10 TeV). CALET has a unique capability to observe electrons and gamma rays in the TeV region since the hadron rejection power is larger than 105 and the energy resolution better than 2 % above 100 GeV. CALET has also the capability to measure cosmic ray H, He and heavy nuclei up to 1000 TeV. The instrument will also monitor solar activity and search for gamma ray transients. The phase B study has started, aimed at a launch in 2013 by H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) for a 5 year observation period on JEM/EF

The CALET mission on the ISS

We are developing the CALorimetric Electron Telescope, CALET, mission for the Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility, JEM-EF, of the International Space Station. Major scientific objectives are to search for the nearby cosmic ray sources and dark matter by carrying out a precise measurement of the electrons in 1 GeV - 20 TeV and gamma rays in 20 MeV - several 10 TeV. CALET has a unique capability to observe electrons and gamma rays over 1 TeV since the hadron rejection power can be larger than 105 and the energy resolution better than a few % over 100 GeV. The detector consists of an imaging calorimeter with scintillating fibers and tungsten plates and a total absorption calorimeter with BGO scintillators. CALET has also a capability to measure cosmic ray H, He and heavy ions up to 1000 TeV. It also will have a function to monitor solar activity and gamma ray transients. The phase A study has started on a schedule of launch in 2013 by H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) for 5 year observation

Status and performance of the CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) on the International Space Station

The CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) space experiment, currently under development by Japan in collaboration with Italy and the United States, will measure the flux of cosmic-ray electrons (including positrons) to 20 TeV, gamma rays to 10 TeV and nuclei with Z=1 to 40 up to 1,000 TeV during a two-year mission on the International Space Station (ISS), extendable to five years. These measurements are essential to search for dark matter signatures, investigate the mechanism of cosmic-ray acceleration and propagation in the Galaxy and discover possible astrophysical sources of high-energy electrons nearby the Earth. The instrument consists of two layers of segmented plastic scintillators for the cosmic-ray charge identification (CHD), a 3 radiation length thick tungsten-scintillating fiber imaging calorimeter (IMC) and a 27 radiation length thick lead-tungstate calorimeter (TASC). CALET has sufficient depth, imaging capabilities and excellent energy resolution to allow for a clear separation between hadrons and electrons and between charged particles and gamma rays. The instrument will be launched to the ISS within 2014 Japanese Fiscal Year (by the end of March 2015) and installed on the Japanese Experiment Module-Exposed Facility (JEM-EF). In this paper, we will review the status and main science goals of the mission and describe the instrument configuration and performance

The CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) for high-energy astroparticle physics on the International Space Station

The CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) is a space experiment, currently under development by Japan in collaboration with Italy and the United States, which will measure the flux of cosmic-ray electrons (and positrons) up to 20 TeV energy, of gamma rays up to 10 TeV, of nuclei with Z from 1 to 40 up to 1 PeV energy, and will detect gamma-ray bursts in the 7 keV to 20 MeV energy range during a 5 year mission. These measurements are essential to investigate possible nearby astrophysical sources of high energy electrons, study the details of galactic particle propagation and search for dark matter signatures. The main detector of CALET, the Calorimeter, consists of a module to identify the particle charge, followed by a thin imaging calorimeter (3 radiation lengths) with tungsten plates interleaving scintillating fibre planes, and a thick energy measuring calorimeter (27 radiation lengths) composed of lead tungstate logs. The Calorimeter has the depth, imaging capabilities and energy resolution necessary for excellent separation between hadrons, electrons and gamma rays. The instrument is currently being prepared for launch (expected in 2015) to the International Space Station ISS, for installation on the Japanese Experiment Module - Exposure Facility (JEM-EF)