Development of Self-calibrating Science Grade Magnetometer System for Cubesat Platforms

Magnetic field measurements are crucial to understanding the fundamental science question in Heliophysics: How do the geospace respond to solar variability? They not only provide the information for mapping the magnetic field and deriving related parameters such as electric currents, but also are essential to organize measurements of thermal plasma and energetic particles. Multi-point measurements are needed to separate spatial and temporal variations in characterizing the dynamics and responses of the geospace; and future Heliophysics missions will require the use of a constellation of smaller nanosatellites (e.g., CubeSats). The Heliophysics community currently lacks a highly accurate, low-resource and low-cost magnetometer system suitable for CubeSat platforms. CubeSats that flew in space in recent years generally carried mass-produced COTS magnetometers or those based on magnetoresistance effects. These magnetometers do not have the necessary accuracy, precision, stability and linearity for science-grade measurements in the ionosphere and magnetosphere. Tri-axial fluxgate magnetometers are reliable and mature technology for vector magnetic field measurements and have been flight-validated in numerous missions as a science payload since the beginning of the space age. Miniaturization of fluxgate magnetometers is generally the approach for the development of science-grade measurement capability. The limitation of fluxgate magnetometers is that the measured baseline can drift, compromising the absolute accuracy of the measurement, and are thus typically flown with scalar magnetometers. We proposed to develop a self-calibrating science grade magnetometer system in a highly miniaturized, boom mountable package for Cubesat platforms. The system is self-calibrating because it includes a miniature fluxgate magnetometer for vector measurements and a chip-scale scalar magnetometer providing important constraints to calibrations of the vector measurements. Such unit consists of a miniaturized tri-axial fluxgate sensor head with embedded microfabricated vapor cell for scalar operation, a miniaturized optics platform, electronics board supporting both vector and scalar operations, a USB computer interface box, the power system, and evaluation software. At project conclusion, we will produce a fully functional, flight-ready unit that has gone through all necessary environmental tests on the ground (TRL-5). The proposed instrument development will help fulfill NASA's Heliophysics strategic objective "to understand the Sun and its interactions with Earth and the solar system, including space weather" and the second Heliophysics Decadal Survey goal to "determine the dynamics and coupling of the Earth's magnetosphere, ionosphere and atmosphere and their response to solar terrestrial inputs" using small satellites. Magnetic field measurements are essential in Heliophysics missions in understanding the fundamental science question: How do the geospace respond to solar variability?

Support NASA's Heliophysics strategic science objectives to understand the Sun and its interactions with Earth and the solar system, including space weather. This will be achieved by developing/demonstrating instrumentation technology necessary to address the following science goals: Explore the physical processes in the space environment from the Sun to the Earth and throughout the solar system; Advance our understanding of the connections that link the Sun, the Earth, planetary space environments, and the outer reaches of our solar system; Develop the knowledge and capability to detect and predict extreme conditions in space to protect life and society and to safeguard human and robotic explorers beyond Earth.

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