Upgrade of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) for long term operation on the International Space Station (ISS)

Following the decision to maintain the International Space Station (ISS) on orbit until at least 2020 (possibly until 2028) the AMS collaboration decided to correspondingly extend the lifetime of the experiment. Since the limited amount of helium used to cool the superconducting magnet allowed for only a limited run time of the experiment, a change from the superconducting magnet to the permanent magnet used in AMS-01 became necessary. Due to the lower magnetic field, to maintain the resolution the silicon tracker also had to be reconfigured with the installation of a silicon plane on the top of the experiment and a new plane above the electromagnetic calorimeter.