Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI)

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The Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) project is an effort to develop the next generation Compton telescope of higher sensitivity. COSI is currently a balloon-borne telescope project. The heart of COSI is an array of cross-strip germanium detectors, each with 15mm x 80mm x 80mm dimension and full 3D position resolution of less than 2 mm^3. COSI performs Compton spectroscopic imaging in the 0.2-10 MeV gamma-ray band with a field of view about 50 degrees across and capability of polarization measurement. It is also well suitable for monitoring transient events. A balloon flight carrying a 10-detector array was launched from Fort Sumner, NM, in May 2009, which lasted for 38 hours. Another flight carrying 12 detectors was launched from McMurdo, Antarctica on December 29 and lasted for 44 hours. The COSI collaboration is now working for the next flight in spring 2016 to launch from Wanaka, New Zealand, for a 100-day flight. I will report the current status and the future of the COSI project. COSI is a join effort of several institutions in Taiwan and in the US.