[FPSPACE] The Saga of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and the ISS

[LARRY KLAES]

Fighting to Launch Cosmic-Ray Detector

By Dennis Overbye

February 29, 2008,  8:54 am

Dennis Overbye is a science correspondent for The Times. His most recent 
book is ‘’Einstein in Love: A Scientific Romance.'’

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. (Photo: Photographs by The AMS 
Collaboration)In a recent report to Congress (pdf), NASA offered two 
contradictory statements: a $1.5 billion physics experiment intended for the 
International Space Station was on track for a 2009 launch, but it had no 
intention of actually launching the device into space.

Once upon a time the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, as it is known, was to be 
the scientific centerpiece of the space station. By sifting cosmic rays from 
outer space, the 15,000 pound detector would look for evidence of antimatter 
or the mysterious dark matter that accounts for 25 percent of creation.

The brainchild of MIT physicist and Nobel laureate Sam Ting, the detector 
was built by a collaboration of scientists from 16 countries, including 
China and Taiwan, mostly with their own money. NASA agreed in 1995 to give 
it a ride to the space station and then reneged 10 years later after the 
loss of the space shuttle Columbia, saying the remaining flights between now 
and 2010 when the shuttles are to be retired were all spoken for. This 
dismayed many physicists who thought the space agency should keep its word 
and was being a bad international partner.

“It’s a pity that NASA is living up to its commitment to finish the Space 
Station, but not to its commitment to use it for something scientifically 
interesting,” said Steven Weinberg, himself a Nobel physicist at the 
University of Texas, in Austin.

But Dr. Ting has supporters in Congress, including Sen. Bill Nelson, the 
chairman of the Space, Aeronautics, and Related Sciences Subcommittee who 
rode the shuttle into space in 1986. In December, he vowed to file 
legislation adding a shuttle flight for the detector if Michael Griffin, 
NASA’s administrator did not change his mind.

In a speech on February 8, the day after Atlantis lifted off on the most 
recent mission to the space station, Sen. Nelson said of Dr. Ting’s 
experiment, “What it does is it identifies the origin of cosmic rays, and 
that means it can help us understand the origin of the universe. This is not 
just an American experiment; this is an international experiment of 
countries around the world. This is a part of us wanting to understand our 
beginnings. This is a part of our nature, as a people, to want to explore 
the heavens and understand the universe.”

Full article here:

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/29/fighting-to-launch-cosmic-ray-detector/?hp