The DAMPE (DArk Matter Particle Explorer) satellite was launched on December 17, 2015 and started its data taking operation a few days later. DAMPE has a large geometric factor (∼0.3m2sr) and provides good tracking, calorimetric and charge measurements for electrons, gammas rays and nuclei. This will allow precise measurement of cosmic ray spectra from tens of GeV up to about 100TeV. In particular, the energy region between 1−100TeV will be explored with higher precision compared to previous experiments. The various subdetectors allow an efficient identification of the electron signal over the large (mainly proton-induced) background. As a result, the all-electron spectrum will be measured with excellent resolution from few GeV up to few TeV, thus giving the opportunity to identify possible contribution of nearby sources. A report on the mission goals and status is presented, together with the on-orbit detector performance and the first data coming from space.
@article{arxiv.1701.05046,
title = {DAMPE space mission: first data},
author = {F. Gargano},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1701.05046},
year = {2017}
}