April 27, 2009 -- The crowning glory of the International Space Station has nothing to do with preparing humans to live on the moon or finding a cure for Salmonella. It's a particle detector designed to hunt for an antimatter universe. This week, NASA resumes work to shutter the shuttle program at the end of 2010, but it is planning for one extra mission to ferry the 7.5-ton detector, known as the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, to the station in late 2010. Though Congress has authorized the mission, it has not yet allocated the funds (an estimated $300 million) to NASA for the flight. "I have learned in the 15 years working with space experiments you are only confident once you are on the space station taking data," said Samuel Ting, the Nobel Prize physicist who leads the AMS team. "My main job at this moment is to make sure (in) the final phase of the assembly of the detector, that nothing goes wrong," Ting told Discovery News. Related Content:
Ting, who was a co-discoverer of the first complex antimatter particle, said he's been wondering for more than 45 years about the missing mass that should have been created along with regular matter at the birth of the universe. "At the beginning, if you have an electron, you must have a positron. If [you] have a proton, you must have an anti-proton. In other words, there must be equal amounts of matter and anti-matter," Ting said. "It always troubled me; where's the universe made out of antimatter? That was basically one of the reasons we proposed this experiment," he added. "This is somewhat of a definitive experiment to see whether [an] antimatter universe really exists or not." AMS was eliminated from the shuttle's manifest following the 2003 Columbia accident, when the United States decided to retire the fleet for safety and cost reasons, upon completion of the space station in 2010. NASA is developing new spaceships that can travel to the moon as well as the station. The outcry over AMS' cancellation was sharp, particularly because most of its $1.5-billion price tag was picked up by a huge and still-growing international partnership that is backing the program. NASA's role was to fly AMS to space and install it outside the station. Get More NewsSpiders, Scorpions Among World's Oldest CreaturesMany creepy crawlies have been on Earth much longer than previously believed.Blood-Sucking Vampire Bats Sing DuetsWhite-winged vampire bats "harmonize" with separated roost mates.Oldest Hebrew Writing Possibly FoundAncient inscriptions on a 3,000-year-old pottery shard could make history.Rare, Prehistoric-Age Reptile Found in N.Z.A tuatara has been spotted on the New Zealand mainland for the first time in 200 years.Iceman Has No Living RelativesOetzi, the 5,300 year-old frozen mummy, left no living genetic legacy.SLIDE SHOW: Landscapes of TerrorWhat makes a place feel scary? There are scientific explanations.It's Official: People Are Warming the PolesHumans are conclusively to blame for polar warming, say scientists.Eight-Armed Animal Preceded DinosaursWhat may be one of Earth's first animals was no bigger than a coaster and had eight arms.Phoenicians Live on in People's GenesOne in 17 Mediterranean men may be descended from ancient Phoenicians.Pesticides, Fertilizers Linked to Frog DeclineA pesticide is found to promote parasites among amphibians.Hubble Telescope Taking Photos AgainThe Hubble Space Telescope is once again snapping stunning photos of the universe.Andean Mummy Hairs Show Hallucinogen UseScientists find direct evidence of hallucinogenic drug use among ancient Andeans.Opals on Mars Reveal Planet's Long Wet PastOpals found on Mars suggest the planet has been wet for much longer. |
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