The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) is a general purpose high energy particle detector that was deployed to the International Space Station (ISS) on May 19, 2011 to conduct a unique long duration mission of fundamental physics research from space. Among the physics objectives of AMS are a search for Dark Matter, Antimatter, the study of propagation of cosmic rays and the exploration of newscientific phenomena that can not be achieved on ground based experiments.
After four years of operations in space, AMS has collected more than 60 billion cosmic ray events and has provided precisión measurements of electrons, positrons, protons, antiprotons, and nuclei of helium, lithium, boron, carbon and oxygen up to multi-TeVenergies. As an external payload on the ISS until at least 2024, AMS will continue to collect and analyze an increasing set of data athighest energies which, combined with in-depth knowledge of the detector and systematic errors, will provide new insights in this field.
CIEMAT and IAC have participated in the AMS Experiment since 1997 and 2003 respectively. Both groups have successfully accomplished their contributions during the construction and assembly phase of the AMS detector and are actively participating in the exploitation of scientific data.
The main goal of the present Research Project is to continue the CIEMAT and IAC participation in the AMS Experiment for the next three years. The main activities will be concentrated on the detector operation and the analysis of the AMS science data.
CIEMAT group also proposes to initiate R&D activities for future cosmic ray detectors in space. CIEMAT group also proposes to continue with the R&D activities for future cosmic ray detectors in space that started with the 2015 Project.