Recent Progress on the Directional Dark Matter Detector (D$^{3})$

We present recent progress towards a direction-sensitive WIMP dark matter search based on gas-filled Time Projection Chambers (TPCs) where the drift charge is amplified with Gas Electron Multipliers (GEMs) and detected with pixel electronics. The advantage of this approach is that nuclear recoils can be reconstructed in three dimensions with low energy threshold and low noise, at room temperature. We present performance measurements of small prototypes and a development path towards an affordable, m$^{3}$-scale Directional Dark Matter Detector; D$^{3}$. Such a detector may be particularly suitable for low-mass WIMP searches, and perhaps sufficiently sensitive to clearly determine whether the signals seen by DAMA, CoGeNT, and CRESST-II are due to low-mass WIMPs or background.