The AMS02-RICH prototype: results of the test beam

For its second mission, the AMS magnetic spectrometer will be equipped with a RICH detector that will provide the experiment with a beta (β) measurement with resolution at a level of 0.1% and charge measurement up to iron (Z=26). The feasibility of the RICH detector has been checked with a prototype consisting essentially of one block of radiator (silica aerogel (Agl)), and a detection plane instrumented with 96 photomultipliers, representing ∼14% of the total number of channels. The prototype has been useful to test most of the hardware of the RICH detector and its capability of velocity and charge reconstruction.