Data from the NUCLEON space observatory give a strong indication of the existence of a new universal cosmic ray "knee", which is observed in all groups of nuclei, including heavy nuclei, near a magnetic rigidity of about 10 TV. Universality means the same position of the knee in the magnetic rigidity scale for all groups of nuclei. The knee is observed by both methods of measurement of particles energy implemented in the NUCLEON observatory-the calorimetric method and the kinematic method KLEM. This new cosmic ray "knee" is probably connected with the limit of acceleration of cosmic rays by some generic or nearby source of cosmic rays. *

The NUCLEON experiment was designed to study the chemical composition and energy spectra of galactic cosmic ray nuclei from protons to zinc at energies of ∼ 10 11 -10 15 eV per particle. The research was carried out with the NUCLEON scientific equipment installed on the Russian satellite "Resource-P" No. 2 as an additional payload. This article presents the results for the measured nuclei spectra related to the first approximately 250 days of the scientific data collection during 2015 and 2016. The all-particle spectrum and the spectra of p, He, C, O, Ne, Mg, Si and Fe are presented. Some interesting ratios of the spectra are also presented and discussed. The experiment is now in its beginning stage and the data still have a preliminary character, but they already give numerous indications of the existence of various non-canonical phenomena in the physics of cosmic rays, which are expressed in the violation of a simple universal power law of the energy spectra. These features of the data are briefly discussed.

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The 32-channels ASIC with a unique dynamic range from 1 to 40000 mips, signal to noise ratio not less than 2.5 at a shaper peaking time of 2 µs and a low power consumption of 1.5 mW/channel has been designed. The transfer function of the charge sensitive amplifier (CSA), having two subranges of various gains, allowed to reach high dynamic range of the readout electronics. The subranges are automatically switched. Two ASICs were installed on a ladder construction which also contains an ADC, a microprocessor and a power supply. The ASIC and the ladder were created for the minicalorimeter of the NUCLEON experiment. The goal of the NUCLEON satellite mission is to measure the elemental (Z from 1 to 30) energy spectra of highenergy (10 11 -10 15 eV) cosmic rays. The ladder has been tested at the SPS. The ladder can also be used for other future HEP and space cosmic ray experiments.

Abstract. The NUCLEON satellite experiment is designed to investigate directly, above the atmosphere, the energy spectra of cosmic-ray nuclei and the chemical composition (Z= 1 − 30) at energy range 100 GeV-1000 TeV. The effective geometric factor is more than 0.2 m 2 sr for nuclei and 0.06 m 2 sr for electrons. The planned exposition time is more than 5 years. The aims of the NUCLEON experimentThe NUCLEON satellite experiment is designed to investigate directly, above the atmosphere, the energy spectra of cosmic-ray nuclei and the chemical composition from 100 GeV to 1000 TeV (before the "knee"). The additional aim is the cosmic-ray electron spectrum measurement (from 20 GeV to 3 TeV).The "knee" energy range, 10 14 − 10 16 eV, is a crucial region for the understanding of the cosmic-ray acceleration and propagation in the interstellar medium. It is important to obtain more data with elemental resolution since the "knee" region is interesting for astrophysics.New experiments over a wide charge and energy range are needed, as they would help to test existing theoretical conceptions. Balloon experiments like ATIC [1-3], TRACER [4], CREAM [5] have begun to solve the abovementioned problems. But a real solution to the problems would be possible only with a long-term large aperture satellite experiment. Some important results has been obtained in the past years by the PAMELA satellite [6,7], and recently by AMS02 [8,9] and Fermi-LAT [10], currently taking data.The NUCLEON experiment on board of the RESURS-P satellite was launched in 26 December 2014. The mission aims to clarify, in the above mentioned energy interval, the essential details of the origin of cosmic-rays, such as the number and types of sources, identification of actual nearby sources, and the investigation of the mechanisms responsible for the knee. Specific features of the NUCLEON instrument are a relatively small thickness (15.2 radiation lengths) and a small weight (375 kg). The satellite restrictions did not allow the creation of a fullaperture calorimeter thus its transversal size was limited to a Corresponding author: turun1966@yandex.ru 250 × 250 mm and a weight of ∼26 kg. In this contribution we present the design of the instrument, and some results of accelerator beam tests in terms of charge and energy resolution. The potential of the instrument to achieve the declared goals are also presented. The NUCLEON deviceThe NUCLEON device was designed and produced by a collaboration of SINP MSU (main investigator), JINR (Dubna) and some other Russian scientific and industrial centers. It is placed now on board of the RESURS-P N • 2 satellite (Fig. 1). The spacecraft has a Sun-synchronous orbit with an inclination of 97.276 • and a middle altitude of 475 km. The effective geometric factor is more than 0.2 m 2 sr for the KLEM (Kinematic Lightweight Energy Meter) system and near 0.06 m 2 sr for the calorimeter. The primary energy is reconstructed by registration of spatial density of the secondary particles. The particles are generated by the first hadro...

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