THE ALPHA MAGNETIC SPECTROMETER ON THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) is a general purpose high energy particle detector which was successfully deployed on the International Space Station (ISS) on May 19, 2011 to conduct a unique long duration mission of fundamental physics research in space. Among the physics objectives of AMS are the searches for an understanding of Dark Matter, Anti-matter, the origin of cosmic rays and the exploration of new physics phenomena not possible to study with ground based experiments. This paper reviews the layout of the AMS-02 detector, tests and calibrations performed with the detector on the ground, and its performance on the ISS illustrated with data collected during the first year of operations in space.