Russian and Italian scientists have developed an orbital version of the high-precision Pamela magnetic spectrometer, thereby concluding a highly important stage in the RIM-Pamela international project, managers at Russia's Federal Space Agency say (RIM stands for Russian-Italian Mission) This project, which also involves scientists from Germany, Sweden and the United States, aims to solve fundamental problems of cosmology that studies the origin of the universe and its evolution.
Professor Arkady Galper from Moscow's Physical Engineering Institute (MIFI) acts as the project's academic supervisor on behalf of Russia. He says the project tackles such problems as the origin of black matter, the generation of galactic cosmic rays and their spread, solar processes and solar cosmic rays, as well as the behavior of high-energy matter particles inside the terrestrial magnetosphere. The project is based on previous MIFI research.
The Pamela spectrometer features state-of-the-art elementary-particle detectors that can register and measure electric-charge magnitude and polarity, as well as space-particle speed, energy, mass, direction and ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival), using magnetic-analysis methods (i.e., by measuring the deviation of particles that pass through the magnetic field).
Off-line tests of this spectrometer's orbital version are now being conducted at the Tor Vargata University of Rome under the guidance of Professor Picozza Pierdorgio, who is the project's academic supervisor on behalf of Italy. After that, the spectrometer will be sent to Russia this April and placed inside a special airtight container. The container itself will be installed aboard the Russian-made Resource-DK-1 remote-sensing satellite, which was developed at the TsSKB-Progress rocket center in Samara.
As a rule, it takes about six months to conduct comprehensive tests of an instrument-packed spacecraft, which means the Resource-DK-1 satellite will only lift off during the fourth quarter of 2005. It will be orbited by a Soyuz-M launch vehicle from the Baikonur space center. The satellite's orbit will have the following parameters: apogee, 690km; perigee, 360km. Its service life will be at least three years.
Unlike the satellite's main specialized equipment, which will scan the Earth, the Pamela spectrometer will be aimed toward the zenith along its sensitive axis. It will therefore become possible to observe space radiation all the time during the satellite's service life.
This device will provide about 10 billion units of information every 24 hours in its standard observation mode. The spacecraft's technical potential makes it possible to store and transmit twice as much data per day. The main data-exchange station is located in Moscow and the second one is to be found in Khanty-Mansiisk, Western Siberia. The experiment will be supervised from Moscow.
The quality of all incoming information will be analyzed in an hour before an expert group processes it.
The data-exchange network has one important feature. The Moscow station can analyze data from distant terminals, including in Italy and Sweden. All data will be handled in line with coordinated programs. The concerned parties shall publish their findings jointly.
It is intended to register 10,000 anti-protons, i.e., elementary particles with the same physical characteristics as their proton "doubles", within the next three years. Protons and anti-protons differ in their polarity. In all, 100,000 positrons, i.e. anti-electrons, will also be registered. The project's scientists believe that this will be enough to assess the "annihilation effect," i.e., the transformation of colliding particles and anti-particles into other weak interaction massive particles, which scientists believe form black matter. Moreover, it might become possible to determine their mass during this experiment.
Magnetic-spectrometer analysis is not enough for singling out anti-particles because electrons can imitate anti-protons. Both have negative polarity, and protons can imitate positrons. Therefore, the Pamela spectrometer will feature additional devices and detectors, some of which were developed by Russian scientists, to reliably identify anti-particles and determine their energies.
Until recently, experimental data on high-energy anti-proton and positron flows inside cosmic rays was obtained using high-altitude balloons. However, atmospheric distortions tended to impair measuring accuracy. The RIM-Pamela project may become the first successful experiment to calculate black-matter mass using orbital systems.
"Black matter is known to make up 25% of the universe, whereas another 70% is black energy - the energy of a space vacuum that counteracts gravitation forces, and which ensures the permanent expansion of our Universe," Professor Galper said. No one doubted the existence of black matter in the past. It has also been established that regions are filled with it. Terrestrial observers view it as a lens that focuses electromagnetic radiation of a distant space object, deflecting it inside the gravitational field. This phenomenon manifests itself when the observer, the invisible substance (lens) and the observed object are located along one and the same line.
However, Professor Galper says scientists have always wanted to find out the correlation between black mass and that of the visible universe. This is an extremely important question because the universe will expand ad infinitum if the complete substance density inside the visible and the invisible universe falls short of preset critical levels. If the density exceeds critical levels, the universe will begin to shrink. If the density level is only critical, then it will continue to expand, albeit slower.
The RIM-Pamela project aims to unlock the mysteries of black matter and to measure particle mass (provided, of course, that black matter consists of elementary particles) and to determine their origin and properties.
