CALET Mission for the Observation of Cosmic Rays on the International Space Station

Abstract

We have proposed CALET (CALorimetric Electron Telescope) mission to make observations of high energy cosmic rays, electrons, gamma-rays, and nuclei, on the International Space Station (ISS). CALET mission has been approved as one of candidates for the next mission utilizing the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM). The detector of CALET consists of an imaging calorimeter (IMC) and a total absorption calorimeter (TASC). Main objective of cosmic-ray observation with CALET is to determine precise energy spectrum of electrons up to 20 TeV. As the super nova remnants (SNR) are taken to be sources of electrons, some structure caused by nearby electron sources is expected to appear in the energy spectrum over 1 TeV. Gamma-rays from 20 MeV to a few TeV can be also observed by CALET. Because a thick TASC of CALET gives high energy resolution, annihilation line of SUSY particle, which is a candidate of the dark matter, can be detected. Observation of nuclei is also possible up to 1000 TeV owing to the thick TASC. We have been going on conceptual design of CALET to clear a next judgment in one or two years to proceed to practical development for launching in 2013.