Extended Mission
According to its original design, AMS-02 was to be returned to Earth on a shuttle flight after its superfluid helium supply (used to cool the superconducting magnet solenoid) was exhausted. Because the superconducting system could not be made to work reliably, lower sensitivity non-superconducting magnets were employed, eliminating the need for superfluid helium. The experiment additionally is too large and heavy to return to Earth after the retirement of the shuttle, and the plan is therefore now to leave the unit in place on the space station exterior.
Read more about this topic: Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer
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