Automated static magnetic cleanliness screening for the TRACERS small-satellite mission

Abstract

The Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS) Small Explorers mission requires high-fidelity magnetic field measurements for its magnetic reconnection science objectives and for its technology demonstration payload Magnetometers for Innovation and Capability (MAGIC). TRACERS needs to minimize the local magnetic noise through a magnetic cleanliness program such that the stray fields from the spacecraft and its instruments do not distort the local geophysical magnetic field of interest. Here we present an automated magnetic screening apparatus and procedure to enable technicians to routinely and efficiently measure the magnetic dipole moments of potential flight parts to determine whether they are suitable for spaceflight. This procedure is simple, replicable, and accurate down to a dipole moment of 1.59 × 10−3 N m T−1. It will be used to screen parts for the MAGIC instrument and other subsystems of the TRACERS satellite mission to help ensure magnetically clean measurements on orbit.