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 The Pamela Instrument is installed on the up-ward side of the Resurs-DK1 satellite and has been launched the 15th of June 2006 from the launch site of Bajkonour in Kazakhstan by a rocket Soyuz.
The satellite is travelling around the Earth along an elliptical orbit with an upward orientation, at an altitude ranging between 350 - 610 Km with an inclination of 70.0 °. 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. The experiment is still operating, daily transmitting about 15 GB of data.
The in-flight PAMELA instrument performance are:
Particle | Energy Range | | Antiproton spectrum | 60 MeV - 180 GeV | | Positron fraction | 200 MeV – 300 GeV | | Electron spectrum | 200 MeV – 625 GeV | | electron + positron | up to 1 TeV | | Proton spectrum | 400 MV – 1.2 TV | | Helium spectrum | 700 MV – 1.2 TV | | Light nuclei (up to C) | up to 150 GeV/n | Light isotopes D
Light isotopes 3He | 100 MeV/n – 600 MeV/n
100 MeV/n – 900 MeV/n | | Antinuclei search (antiHe/He) | 4.7 x 10-7 |
The mission scientific objectives are:
- To search for
- Structures in cosmic ray spectra from e.g. dark matter or new astrophysical sources
- New form of matter, e.g. strangelets
- Antinuclei with a anti-He/He sensitivity of 10−7
- To study
- Cosmic-ray acceleration and propagation mechanisms
- Solar modulation effects
- Solar flares emissions
- Particles in the Earth’s magnetosphere
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PAMELA PROJECT 
