The FOOT experiment

The main goal of the FOOT (FragmentatiOn Of Target) experiment is the measurement of the differential cross sections with respect to the energy and angle of the produced fragments in nuclear interactions between an ion beam, such as proton, Helium, Carbon, and different targets (proton, Carbon, Oxygen). Two important fields can benefit from these kind of measurements: firstly, in the 150 — 400MeV/u beam energy range, the data will be used to evaluate the nuclear fragmentation occurring in a standard hadrontherapy treatment and thus potential side effects. Secondly, in the 700 — 1000MeV/u beam energy range, the FOOT experiment aims at studying novel shields for spacecrafts involved in long term missions within the Solar System. The experiment has been funded by INFN since September 2017 and it is currently in its construction phase while the first data taking is scheduled by the end of 2020. A description of the experiment and a overview of expected performances and test beam results will be presented.