The largest and most complex scientific instrument yet to be fitted to the International Space Station was installed today. Taken into space by the Space Shuttle, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer will sift ten thousand cosmic-ray hits every minute, looking for nature's best-kept particle secrets.
It is the most complex space physics experiment ever built, and it will launch on shuttle Endeavour this week. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) is also the most expensive, valued at $2bn (£1.2bn) - although no-one is really quite sure how much it has cost. Read more
The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) will be located outside the International Space Station (ISS) and will use its various detectors to seek cosmic radiation in space. On 29 April 2011, at 21:47 CET (19:47 UTC), the AMS will be launched on board the space shuttle Endeavour from Cape Canaveral (Florida), en route to the ISS. The project, supported by the German Aerospace Centre (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR), will involve 500 scientists from 16 countries. The main scientific target is to find evidence for the presence of dark matter and antimatter. Read more
The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) has finally arrived at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida to begin final checks before being launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in February. The AMS has variously been described as the "LHC in space" and the "world's most expensive space experiment", besides a few other derogatory labels that have played on its $1.5bn price tag. Read more
Following a trip to ESTEC in Noordwijk in the Netherlands, where tests confirmed its fitness for launch into space on board the International Space Station (ISS), the AMS experiment is now back at CERN for final modifications. "The collaboration adopted a modified configuration that, among other things, re-uses the permanent magnet of the AMS-01 prototype that was flown into space in 1998", says Samuel Ting, Spokesperson of the AMS experiment. Although less powerful, this magnet will allow AMS to function as long as the ISS remains in space, i.e. at least until 2020 and possibly until 2028, in line with the plans to extend the Station's lifetime set out by President Obama in February this year. Read more
An anti-matter detector to be installed on the space station is to have a key component changed in order to help it spend longer in space. Scientists plan to replace the liquid helium-cooled heart of the detector with a long-life magnet that already has spent time in orbit. Modifying the device should increase the time it can operate in space from three years to as long as 18 years. Read more