The
Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer
experiment (
AMS-2 )
|
-
AMS
is a particle detector for the International Space Station
- AMS is a major cosmology experiment
- AMS is a major particle-physics experiment
- AMS is a manifestly international, cooperative project |
Mission
Overview:
|
Launch Date |
October
2005 |
| Mission
Duration |
3
years |
Primary
Objective
|
To
search for heavy antimatter in cosmic rays, by measuring the charges
on ~1,000,000,000 helium and other nuclei. |
| General
Objectives |
To
collect precision cosmic ray data at high energies, including 10^10
protons; to discover or rule out certain particles as explanations
for dark matter; to study cosmic ray propagation in the galaxy;
to search for exotic particles or spectral features among
cosmic rays. |
| Prototype
Version |
AMS-01,
a simplified version of the detector, flew on Space Shuttle Discovery
for the STS-91 mission (the final shuttle-MIR docking) in July 1998.
AMS-01 observed millions of helium nuclei, but no antihelium. |
| Launch
Vehicle |
USA
Space Shuttle |
| Weight |
6731
Kg |
Power
|
2000
Watts |
The
AMS-2 Detector Overview
An experiment to search in space for dark matter, missing
matter & antimatter on the international space station.
What
AMS will do in the next few years:
-
Assembly
- Beam Tests
- Pre-Launch
- Launch
- Transfer to ISS
- Talking to AMS
- 3 years in Space
- After mission the STS will bring it home
The
Tracker
-
The AMS tracker is the largest silicon strip detector
array in the world!
- It is made of hundreds of small custom-made chips,
which are daisy-chained together into columns
called "ladders".
- With 200,000 channels to be read out, these electronics
are complicated, fast, and power hungry.
- The 200 watts of heat generated by the electronics
has to be conducted up, up, and out of the magnet
bore.
- The tracker must be as thin and lightweight as possible
- nevertheless it must be stiff and sturdy to
survive a Space Shuttle launch. The silicon
is supported on ultra-light composite materials.
G & A vs. AMS-2
The G & A Engineering is involved for the AMS silicon
tracker ladder construction.
Silicon
Tracker
|
The
silicon tracker measures particle trajectories through a magnetic
field.
G & A vs. AMS-2, Ladder Manufacturing
|
|
