OS: AMS device flying Endeavour could be big science or big dud

From the Orlando Sentinel newspaper:

Yet there have been doubts about the AMS, as it’s known, and delays. Six years ago, NASA nearly canceled the mission. It took an act of Congress to specifically fund this Endeavour launch. 

And doubts remain. 

The AMS is the scientific version of a lobster trap. A 15,000-pound supercooled magnet wrapped around an open cylinder, it’s designed to sit outside the space station, catching and analyzing whatever floats or zooms through its magnetic tunnel, giving scientists the chance — just like lobstermen — of netting something big. Or not.

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