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The Alpha Magnetic Spectrograph (AMS) is a composite particle detector to be accommodated on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2008. AMS is mainly devoted to galactic, charged Cosmic Rays studies, Antimatter and Dark Matter searches. Besides the main, classical physics goals, capabilities in the field of GeV and multi-GeV gamma astrophysics have been established and are under investigation by a number of groups. Due to the unsteadiness of the ISS platform, a star-mapper device is required in order to fully exploit the intrinsic arc-min angular resolution provided by the Silicon Tracker. A star-mapper is conceptually an imaging, optical instrument able to autonomously recognize a stellar field and to calculate its own orientation with respect to an inertial reference frame. AMICA (Astro Mapper for Instruments Check of Attitude) on AMS is responsible for providing real-time information that is going to be used off-line for compensating the large uncertainties in the ISS flight attitude and the structural degrees of freedom. In this paper, we describe in detail the AMICA sub-system and the accommodation/integration issues and the in-flight alignment procedure adopting identified galactic (pulsars) and extragalactic (AGNs) sources., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Astroparticle Physics

A Mission into Hot Phenomena in the Universe is proposed by means of a small telescope of 50 cm aperture accommodated on the International Space Station. Two operating modes are envisaged: 3 angstrom dispersion imaging spectroscopy in the 90 - 320 nm range (1st priority) or wide field (1 degree) medium bandwidth imaging in the same range but Ly-(alpha) (2nd priority). It will use a pointing platform attached to an Express Pallet Adapter available to the Italian Space Agency (ASI) more than 4 - 6 months per year. During a life time of 6 yr focal plane instruments may be changed when on-ground refurbishment occurs. With reasonable exposure times hot thermal sources as faint as V equals 19 - 2 can be observed in the spectroscopy mode at 110 nm and active chromospheres on cool stars as faint as V equals 15 at 250 nm can be monitored. Assessment of FUV imaging is underway, possibly providing observations of hot sources as faint as V equals 21 - 22. Nominal uplift to ISS is set in Autumn 2005.© (2000) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

UVSTAR, UV Spectrograph Telescope for Astronomical Research operates in the 500-1200 angstrom waveband; it has capability for long slit spectral imaging of extended cosmic sources. UVSTAR has recently flown as a Hitchhiker-M payload on the STS 85 mission of the SHuttle Discovery. UVSTAR is a joint collaboration between the University of Arizona and the University of Trieste. The instrument consists of a movable platform and an optical system The platform provides fine pointing within +/- 3 degrees from the nominal view direction, which is near the shuttle +Y axis, i.e. perpendicular to the long axis of the Shuttle and in the plane of the wings. The optical system has two channels, each formed of a telescope and Rowland concave-grating spectrograph with intensified CCD detector. The first channel, FUV, operates in the 850-1250 angstrom spectral range, the second, EUV, has covered the 500-900 angstrom region. UVSTAR includes capabilities for independent target acquisition and tracking. Here we report FUV observations, obtained in August 1997, of the sdO star BD +28 degrees 4211 which is a secondary flux standard and of the central star of the planetary nebula NGC 246, a hot degenerate star which shows strong OVI lines in the optical region. The UVSTAR spectrum of NGC 246 displays remarkable P Cygni profiles indicating a very fast stellar wind.

We propose an instrument to look for Extensive Air Showers (EAS) produced by Extremely High Energy Cosmic Rays (EHECR, E>1020 eV) from space (Airwatch concept) by observing nitrogen fluorescence radiation.