Session
Session 9: Instruments/Science 2
Abstract
Motivated by small-scale auroral plasma science, ANDESITE, a 6U CubeSat with eight deployable picosatellites, will fly a network of magnetometers through the Northern Lights. With the spacecraft due to launch on the upcoming ELaNa XIX mission, this work details its science mission architecture along with the payload design and calibration. Each three-axis magnetometer instrument is hosted by a deployable picosatellite about the size of a piece of toast. Calibration of these sensors included a test of the integrated picosatelites in a Helmholz cage that sweeps a wide range of magnetic environments. Here, we show that even in the small package—operating under a watt with a compact power system, radio, gyro, and GPS—we were able to sample at greater than 30 Hz with an uncertainty under 20 nT. We also present analysis for the entire network to understand the spatial frequency response of the kilometer-scale 3D filter created by the swarm as it flies through various current density structures in the ionospheric plasma.
Presentation
Calibrating the Swarm: Networked Small Satellite Magnetometers for Auroral Plasma Science
Motivated by small-scale auroral plasma science, ANDESITE, a 6U CubeSat with eight deployable picosatellites, will fly a network of magnetometers through the Northern Lights. With the spacecraft due to launch on the upcoming ELaNa XIX mission, this work details its science mission architecture along with the payload design and calibration. Each three-axis magnetometer instrument is hosted by a deployable picosatellite about the size of a piece of toast. Calibration of these sensors included a test of the integrated picosatelites in a Helmholz cage that sweeps a wide range of magnetic environments. Here, we show that even in the small package—operating under a watt with a compact power system, radio, gyro, and GPS—we were able to sample at greater than 30 Hz with an uncertainty under 20 nT. We also present analysis for the entire network to understand the spatial frequency response of the kilometer-scale 3D filter created by the swarm as it flies through various current density structures in the ionospheric plasma.
