CALET: High energy cosmic ray observatory on International Space Station

Abstract

The CALorimeteric Electron Telescope (CALET) is a Japanese-led international mission being developed as part of the utilization plan for the International Space Station (ISS). CALET will be launched by an H-II B rocket utilizing the Japanese developed HTV (H-II Transfer Vehicle) in 2014. The instrument will be robotically emplaced upon the Exposed Facility attached to the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM-EF). CALET is a calorimeter based instrument which will have superior energy resolution and excellent separation between hadrons and electrons and between charged particles and gamma rays in the GeV to trans-TeV energy range. CALET will address many questions in high energy astrophysics, including (1) the nature of the sources of high energy particles and photons, through the high energy electron spectrum, (2) signatures of dark matter, in either the high energy electron or gamma ray spectrum, (3) the details of particle propagation in the Galaxy, by a combination of energy spectrum measurements of electrons, protons and highercharged nuclei. In this paper the outline and current status of CALET are summarized.