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.