Pushing the observational frontiers in cosmic ray physics: technological advances for space-borne instrumentation

Abstract Identifying key research topics of motivated relevance in the field of astrophysics, and assessing the main scientific and technological gaps to be addressed in order to enable a substantial step forward towards the investigation of the observational frontiers, are fundamental steps to determine significant advancements in the understanding of Nature. Direct detection of cosmic rays represents one of the most sensitive approaches to probe the most energetic mechanisms of the Universe, granting to investigate open problems of modern physics in an approach that is synergic and complementary to the researches at ground particle accelerators and colliders. In this contribution, we provide an overview of the current status of research based on the direct precision measurements of cosmic rays with space-borne detectors, highlighting the observational frontiers traced out by the operations of current instruments, and describing the technological gaps or limitations to overcome in order to proceed with substantial advancements in the field.