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Magnetometers for non-space use evolved from the 19th to mid-20th centuries, and were first employed in spaceflight by Sputnik 3 in 1958. A main constraint on magnetometers in space is the availability of power and mass. Magnetometers fall into 3 major categories: the fluxgate type, search coil and the ionized vapor magnetometers.
Magnetometers may also be classified by their situation or intended use. Stationary magnetometers are installed to a fixed position and measurements are taken while the magnetometer is stationary. [4] Portable or mobile magnetometers are meant to be used while in motion and may be manually carried or transported in a moving vehicle.
The fluxgate magnetometer (FGM) is similar to previous instruments flown on spacecraft like the Voyagers, Magsat, Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Explorers, Mars Global Surveyor, etc. [10] This style of FGM uses twin wide-range, triaxial flux gate sensors mounted far away from the spacecraft body in which the magnetic flux is periodically switched (hence the ame flux-gate). [10]
Explorer 10 was a cylindrical, battery-powered spacecraft instrumented with two fluxgate magnetometers and one rubidium vapor magnetometer extending from the main spacecraft body, and a Faraday cup plasma probe. The magnetometers were produced by Goddard Space Flight Center, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) provided the ...
In the 1940s, Walter M. Elsasser proposed the model of dynamo theory, which attributes Earth's magnetic field to the motion of Earth's iron outer core. Through the use of magnetometers, scientists were able to study the variations in Earth's magnetic field as functions of both time and latitude and longitude.
The International Real-time Magnetic Observatory Network (INTERMAGNET) is a world-wide consortium of institutes operating ground-based magnetometers recording the absolute level of the Earth's time-varying magnetic field, [2] [3] [4] to an agreed set of standards. INTERMAGNET has its roots in discussions held at the Workshop on Magnetic ...
The facility was built in 1966, and has been used to determine and minimize the magnetic movement of uncrewed spacecraft and to calibrate flight magnetometers since the early years of the United States space program. It is able to (within certain limits) emulate the magnetic conditions found in orbital and interstellar space.
These allow the VSM to maximize the induced signal, reduce the noise, give a wide saddle point, minimize the volume in between the sample and electromagnet to achieve a more uniform magnetic field at the sample space. [5] The configuration of the coils can vary depending on the type of material being studied. [5]