Nobel Prize winner visits, thanks AMC

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Scott T. Sturkol
  • Air Mobility Command Public Affairs
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (AFNS) --  During a visit to Air Mobility Command Headquarters here Dec. 9, Nobel Prize winner Dr. Samuel Ting praised AMC for its recent support in delivering the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer from Geneva, Switzerland, to Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Doctor Ting, the 1976 Nobel Prize winner in physics, provided a briefing to AMC Airmen about his personal history and about the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. Doctor Ting is the lead scientist for the AMS project.

On Aug. 26, a C-5M Super Galaxy from AMC's Dover Air Force Base, Del., delivered the 7.5-ton AMS on its last "terrestrial" journey from Switzerland to Florida.
The C-5M proved to be the best option, officials said, because it could carry the entire AMS without breaking it apart, lessening chances for any damage.

Doctor Ting said the international team was "very thankful" for the support by the AMC Airmen.

"Without the C-5, we would have had to take the AMS apart in two pieces to load on a Boeing 747," Doctor Ting said. "I want to thank Air Mobility Command for helping us with this effort. When the mission took place, it was the biggest news in Switzerland."

The AMS is scheduled to be lifted into space on NASA space shuttle mission STS-134, April 1, 2011, to be placed on the International Space Station.

The AMS experiment, according to NASA, is "a state-of-the-art particle physics detector being constructed, tested and operated by an international team composed of 56 institutes from 16 countries and organized under United States Department of Energy sponsorship."

On being the lead physicist for the AMS project, Doctor Ting said the effort is unprecedented, and once it is on the space station, it will provide information on the "origins of the universe."

"The highest energy for charged particles is in the cosmos," he said.

According to NASA officials, the AMS will use the "unique environment" of space to advance knowledge of the universe and lead to the understanding of the universe's origin by searching for antimatter, dark matter and measuring cosmic rays.

"The AMS is the most complicated spectrometer NASA will have ever delivered into space," Doctor Ting said. "It (the AMS) will be on the space station for the life of the space station, and we will learn much more about our universe than ever before."

As the AMS experiment will most likely have a huge impact on the future of physics, mobility Airmen can take credit for assisting in making that effort happen. The AMS team waited 16 years for the day they could accompany it to Kennedy Space Center, Fla., according to an August AMC news report.

"We were very grateful to the U.S. Air Force for taking our AMS," Doctor Ting said.

"We're so honored to be on this flight," said Dr. Susan Ting, the spouse of Doctor Ting 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.

(1st. Lt. Kathleen Ferrero, Air Mobility Command Public Affairs, contributed to this report.)