C-5M Super Galaxy delivers 7-ton particle detector

by 1st Lt. Kathleen Ferrero
Headquarters AMC Public Affairs

8/27/2010 - GENEVA, Switzerland (AFNS) -- A team of internationally renowned physicists led by Nobel laureate Dr. Sam Ting, specially requested the Air Force's largest, newly remodeled airlifter to transport the 7.5-ton Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer from the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Switzerland to Kennedy Space Center, Fla., Aug 26.

A C-5M Super Galaxy crew flew the device on its last terrestrial journey before traveling on the final space shuttle mission to the International Space Station.

"I'm very grateful the U.S. Air Force came to help us," Dr. Ting said. The particle detector is so large that, without the C-5, it would have required a certain level of disassembly for its flight, he said.

The secrets that the AMS can decode are so important that hundreds of physicists from 16 countries came together to build it. Although the project is officially sponsored by NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy, nations around the globe have collectively invested an estimated $2 billion to ensure its success.

AMS team members waited 16 years for the day they could accompany it on to Kennedy Space Center.

"We're so honored to be on this flight," said Dr. Susan Ting, Dr. Sam Ting's wife and budget manager for the project. "To have the U.S. Air Force take us home is just ..." and she paused and smiled, then patted her hand over her heart.

Dr. Ting and his international team faced many trials through the years, to include last-minute modifications and shuttle cancellation. But he said he was determined to see the only physical science experiment on the International Space Station come to fruition.

During its 18 years of scheduled operation, the AMS is expected to use its magnetic detection powers to survey charged particles, While the European lab's Large Hadron Collider is famous for its ability to charge particles at extremely high energies; their levels are nothing compared to the energies of charged particles found in space and the stories they can tell, Dr. Ting said.

"The cosmos is the ultimate laboratory," Dr. Ting said.

But it's important to shed preconceived ideas, he said. For example, the Hubble Telescope's purpose was galactic survey by detecting light; and it stumbled upon the curvature of the universe and existence of dark energy.

Likewise, the hope is that the AMS will stumble upon unchartered realms.

"You always discover something new, and that's what it's all about," Dr. Ting said.