  The AMS spectrometer will be installed on the International Space Station at
the end of 2003. Among other improvements over the first version of the
instrument, a ring imaging Cherenkov detector (RICH) will be added which latter
should open a new window for cosmic-ray physics, allowing isotope separation up
to A~25 between 1 and 10 GeV/c and elements identification up to Z~25 between
threshold and 1 TeV/c/nucleon. It should also contribute to the high level of
redundancy required for AMS and reject efficiency albedo particles. The results
of the first generation prototype and the expected results of the new one are
discussed.
