  The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), whose final version AMS-02 is to be
installed on the International Space Station (ISS) for at least 3 years, is a
detector designed to measure charged cosmic ray spectra with energies up to the
TeV region and with high energy photon detection capability up to a few hundred
GeV, using state-of-the-art particle identification techniques. Following the
successful flight of the detector prototype (AMS-01) aboard the space shuttle,
AMS-02 is expected to provide a significant improvement on the current
knowledge of the elemental and isotopic composition of hadronic cosmic rays due
to its long exposure time (minimum of 3 years) and large acceptance (0.5 m^2
sr) which will enable it to collect a total statistics of more than 10^10
nuclei. Detector capabilities for charge, velocity and mass identification,
estimated from ion beam tests and detailed Monte Carlo simulations, are
presented. Relevant issues in cosmic ray astrophysics addressed by AMS-02,
including the test of cosmic ray propagation models, galactic confinement times
and the influence of solar cycles on the local cosmic ray flux, are briefly
discussed.
