Flux-gate magnetometer for Mars exploration

Abstract

A micro-satellite, Yinghuo-1, would be launched with Russian spacecraft, Phobos-Grunt in October, 2009 to investigate the space environment around Mars. YH-1 and Phobos-Grunt forms a two-point measurement configuration in the Martian space environment. YH-1 and Phobos-Grunt are equipped with similar magnetic field and plasma detecting payload on two spacecraft would give some coordinated exploration around Mars. YH-1 would orbit Mars with periapsis of 800 km above the Martian surface, and apoapsis about 80000km to the center of Mars. The orbit inclination is in the range of 0~7° to the Martian equator. A flux-gate type magnetometer, with two tri-axial sensors, is developed for YH-1 spacecraft. Two sensors are mounted on one-side of the deployable solar panel with a radial separation about 45cm to function as a gradiometer to minimize the affects of platform remanence. The dynamic range of the magnetometer is ±256nT with a 16-bit ADC converter, and the noise level is better than 0.01nT/√Hz, to measure three-component magnetic field from DC to 10Hz. Flux-gate magnetometer would work together with the Plasma Package onboard of YH-1 to investigate the Martian bow shock, magnetosheath, magnetic pileup region (MPR). A detail description of the flux-gate magnetometer is presented in this paper, with test and calibration results.