The General Antiparticle Spectrometer (GAPS) experiment is a novel approach for the detection of cosmic ray antiparticles. A prototype GAPS experiment (pGAPS) was successfully flown on a high-altitude balloon in June of 2012. The goals of the pGAPS experiment were: to test the operation of lithium drifted silicon (Si(Li)) detectors at balloon altitudes, to validate the thermal model and cooling concept needed for engineering of a full-size GAPS instrument, and to characterize cosmic ray and X-ray backgrounds. The instrument was launched from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Taiki Aerospace Research Field in Hokkaido, Japan. The flight lasted a total of 6 hours, with over 3 hours at float altitude (~33 km). Over one million cosmic ray triggers were recorded and all flight goals were met or exceeded.
@article{arxiv.1303.1615,
title = {The Prototype GAPS (pGAPS) Experiment},
author = {S. A. I. Mognet and T. Aramaki and N. Bando and S. E. Boggs and P. von Doetinchem and H. Fuke and F. H. Gahbauer and C. J. Hailey and J. E. Koglin and N. Madden and K. Mori and S. Okazaki and R. A. Ong and K. M. Perez and G. Tajiri and T. Yoshida and J. Zweerink},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1303.1615},
year = {2015}
}