Calocube—A highly segmented calorimeter for a space based experiment

Future research in High Energy Cosmic Ray Physics concerns fundamentl questions on their origin,
acceleration mechanism, andc omposition. Unambiguous measurements of the energy spectra and of the
composition of cosmic rays at the “knee” region could provide some of the answers to the above
questions. Only ground based observations, which rely on sophisticated models
describing high energy
interactions in the earth'satmosphere, have been possible so far due to the extremely low particle rates
at these energies.
A calorimeter based space experiment can provide not only flux measurements but also energy
spectra and particle identification, especially when coupled to a dE/dx measuring detector, and thus
overcome some of the limitations plaguing ground based experiments. For this to be possible every large
acceptances are needed if enough statistic is to be collected in a reasonable time. This contrasts with the
lightness and compactness requirements for space based experiments. A novel idea in calorimetry is discussed here
which addresses these issues while limiting the mass and volume of the detector.Infact a small prototype is currently being built and tested with ions.In this paper the results obtained will be
presented in light of the simulations performed.