The ALPHA Magnetic Spectrometer

The ALPHA Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) will be the first large magnetic spectrometer in space. It is scheduled to be installed on the future International Space Station ALPHA (ISSA) in the year 2002 to perform measurements of the charged particle composition to answer fundamental questions in particle physics and astrophysics. Before installation on ISSA, AMS will fly on the shuttle DISCOVERY for a period of 10 days starting in May 1998. This will enable AMS to perform a test of the apparatus and first measurements. The AMS detector has five major components: A permanent NdFeB magnet, six planes of Silicon double-sided microstrip detectors, a plastic scintillator time of flight hodoscope, a plastic scintillator anticoincidence counter and an Aerogel Cherenkov threshold counter. In addition, there are electronics, support infrastructure and interfaces.