The Space Mission Pamela represents a state-of-the-art of the investigation of the cosmic radiation, addressing the most compelling issues facing astrophysics and cosmology: the nature of the dark matter that pervades the universe, the apparent absence of cosmological antimatter, the origin and evolution of matter in the galaxy. PAMELA, a powerful particle identifier using a permanent magnet spectrometer with a variety of specialized detectors, is an instrument of extraordinary scientific potential that is measuring with unprecedented precision and sensitivity the abundance and energy spectra of cosmic rays electrons, positrons, antiprotons and light nuclei over a very large range of energy from 50 MeV to hundreds GeV, depending on the species. PAMELA has been put in an elliptical orbit at an altitude between 350 and 610 Km, on board of the Resurs-DK1 Russian satellite by a rocket Soyuz, on the 15th of June 2006. In September 2010 the orbit was changed to a nearby circular one, at an altitude of ≅ 570 km, and it has not changed since then.
PAMELA, a powerful particle identifier using a permanent magnet spectrometer with a variety of specialized detectors, is an instrument of extraordinary scientific potential that is measuring with unprecedented precision and sensitivity the abundance and energy spectra of cosmic rays electrons, positrons, antiprotons and light nuclei over a very large range of energy from 50 MeV to hundreds GeV, depending on the species. PAMELA has been put in an elliptical orbit at an altitude between 350 and 610 Km, on board of the Resurs-DK1 Russian satellite by a rocket Soyuz, on the 15th of June 2006. In September 2010 the orbit was changed to a nearby circular one, at an altitude of ≅ 570 km, and it has not changed since then.
