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| Illustration of the AMS-02 placed on the International Space Station. Credits: NASA. |
In February next year the very last Space Shuttle will take off from Kennedy Space Center, bound for the International Space Station (ISS). Its cargo is the result of 15 years of cooperation between 60 institutes in 16 different countries.
It matters
The instrument is the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02), a highly complex scientific instrument that hopefully will help us understand more about the origins and structure of the universe. More specifically, from its perch on the ISS it will search for antimatter and dark matter.
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| AMS-02 - one the most complex space instruments ever. Credits: NASA. |
A very powerful magnet is a significant part of the AMS-2. It creates a magnetic field 4000 times stronger than the Earth’s, and makes it possible to characterize cosmic particles passing through the detector.
The Oslo based company Gamma Medica-Ideas has delivered a component for the largest detector on AMS-02. The component is an integrated circuit attached to the detector’s sensor. It registers the signals from the particles passing through the detector and connects them to a computer system on AMS-02.
AMS veteran
Gunnar Mæhlum, CEO at Gamma Medica-Ideas, worked on the AMS project 13 years ago when the company got the contract for the development of the components.
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| Gunnar Mæhlum, CEO at Gamma Medica-Ideas. Credits: Arnfinn Pettersen/NSC |
He looks forward to finally seeing the launch of the AMS-02, even though the technology the company delivered has aged by more than 10 years.
“Our technology has come much further now, but the marketing value of such an event is considerable,” he says.
It has been many years since the AMS project first got started, but the AMS-02 will most likely make discoveries which are impossible to make with the technology in use today. One of the big questions is whether a considerable quantity of antimatter exists in the universe or not. Scientists hope AMS-02 will be able to solve this mystery.
Dark energy
Another big cosmological quest is to find out what dark matter and dark energy is, and what it does. AMS-02 is constructed find the building blocks of dark matter.
The spectrometer will also be measuring cosmic radiation, a severe threat to the health of astronauts who might head for Mars in the future. Accurate measurements of cosmic radiation are therefore important in order to develop adequate protection for the astronauts.
