AMS-02 on the International Space Station

Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare - P.le Aldo Moro 2 - 00185 Rome, Italy

^a e-mail: francesca.spada@cern.ch

Published online: 10 April 2014

Abstract

AMS-02 is a multipurpose magnetic spectrometer that will operate on the International Space Station for at least two decades. The detector is designed to measure with very high accuracy the composition of cosmic rays near Earth.

With a large acceptance, an intense magnetic field from a permanent magnet and a very efficient particle identification, AMS-02 will provide the highest precision to date in cosmic rays measurements up to the TeV region, achieving a sensitivity to the existence of primordial antimatter in the cosmic rays of one part in a billion, and providing the most complete information on the indirect observation of dark matter.

During the first year in space, several billion events have been recorded. The flight operation, the detector performance, together with early results and perspective for physics measurements are reported.