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AMS-02 (for Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer) is a particle detector attached to the International Space Station (ISS), which began operation in 2011, to compile cosmic-ray statistics. It detects electrons, positrons and other charged particles, recording the frequency of their arrival and their energy. It is a sophisticated detector, somewhat comparable to those used in ground particle experiments. Of interest is such statistics on antimatter particles (an early name for the instrument was the Antimatter Spectrometer). The statistics are intended to provide evidence whether some possible types of dark matter annihilation occur, which could confirm (or disprove) some possible WIMP theories of dark matter. The statistics are also of interest regarding safety in space, and also regarding whether the universe hosts significant antimatter (such as entire antimatter galaxies).
An earlier prototype, AMS-01, was operated in the 1990s on a Space Shuttle mission.