The international space station as an observatory for cosmic-ray physics and astrophysics

The International Space Station is an ideal platform for observing cosmic rays. Furthermore, it can readily accommodate the instrumentation needed to address all of the top-priority science objectives identified in 1995 by the National Academy of Sciences for 'Plasma Processes that Accelerate Very Energetic Particles and Control Their Propagation'. These objectives are synergistic in their pursuit of the illusive goal of understanding the origin, acceleration, and propagation of the cosmic radiation. A distributed observatory on the International Space Station may be the key to answering this long-standing question in the first decade of the new millennium