The Magnetostatic Cleanliness Program for the Cassini Spacecraft

The Cassini spacecraft, launched in October 1997 and expected to reach Saturn in 2004, carries two magnetometer experiments on a 10-m boom, one at the mid-section of the boom and the other situated at the end of the boom. In order to gather valid scientific magnetic field data and avoid electromagnetic interference, the spacecraft had to comply with stringent magnetostatic cleanliness requirements. This paper describes the results of the Cassini magnetics cleanliness program that achieved the goal of minimizing the magnetic field interference with Cassini’s DC magnetic field science instruments.     

Magnetic Cleanliness Program Under Control of Electromagnetic Compatibility for the SELENE (Kaguya) Spacecraft

To achieve the scientific objectives related to the lunar magnetic field measurements in a polar orbit at an altitude of 100 km, strict electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) requirements were applied to all components and subsystems of the SELENE (Kaguya) spacecraft. The magnetic cleanliness program was defined as one of the EMC control procedures, and magnetic tests were carried out for most of the engineering and flight models. The EMC performance of all components was systematically controlled and examined through a series of EMC tests. As a result, the Kaguya spacecraft was made to be very clean, magnetically. Hence reliable scientific data related to the magnetic field around the Moon were obtained by the LMAG (Lunar MAGnetometer) and the PACE (Plasma energy Angle and Composition Experiment) onboard the Kaguya spacecraft. These data have been available for lunar science use since November 2009.     

The STEREO/IMPACT Magnetic Field Experiment

The magnetometer on the STEREO mission is one of the sensors in the IMPACT instrument suite. A single, triaxial, wide-range, low-power and noise fluxgate magnetometer of traditional design—and reduced volume configuration—has been implemented in each spacecraft. The sensors are mounted on the IMPACT telescoping booms at a distance of ～3 m from the spacecraft body to reduce magnetic contamination. The electronics have been designed as an integral part of the IMPACT Data Processing Unit, sharing a common power converter and data/command interfaces. The instruments cover the range ±65,536 nT in two intervals controlled by the IDPU (±512 nT; ±65,536 nT). This very wide range allows operation of the instruments during all phases of the mission, including Earth flybys as well as during spacecraft test and integration in the geomagnetic field. The primary STEREO/IMPACT science objectives addressed by the magnetometer are the study of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), its response to solar activity, and its relationship to solar wind structure. The instruments were powered on and the booms deployed on November 1, 2006, seven days after the spacecraft were launched, and are operating nominally. A magnetic cleanliness program was implemented to minimize variable spacecraft fields and to ensure that the static spacecraft-generated magnetic field does not interfere with the measurements.     

RPC-MAG The Fluxgate Magnetometer in the ROSETTA Plasma Consortium

The fluxgate magnetometer experiment onboard the ROSETTA spacecraft aims to measure the magnetic field in the interaction region of the solar wind plasma with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It consists of a system of two ultra light (about 28 g each ) triaxial fluxgate magnetometer sensors, mounted on the 1.5 m long spacecraft boom. The measurement range of each sensor is ±16384 nT with quantization steps of 31 pT. The magnetometer sensors are operated with a time resolution of up to 0.05 s, corresponding to a bandwidth of 0–10 Hz. This performance of the RPC-MAG sensors allows detailed analyses of magnetic field variations in the cometary environment. RPC-MAG furthermore is designed to study possible remnant magnetic fields of the nucleus, measurements which will be done in close cooperation with the ROSETTA lander magnetometer experiment ROMAP.     

The Juno Magnetic Field Investigation

The Juno Magnetic Field investigation (MAG) characterizes Jupiter’s planetary magnetic field and magnetosphere, providing the first globally distributed and proximate measurements of the magnetic field of Jupiter. The magnetic field instrumentation consists of two independent magnetometer sensor suites, each consisting of a tri-axial Fluxgate Magnetometer (FGM) sensor and a pair of co-located imaging sensors mounted on an ultra-stable optical bench. The imaging system sensors are part of a subsystem that provides accurate attitude information (to ～20 arcsec on a spinning spacecraft) near the point of measurement of the magnetic field. The two sensor suites are accommodated at 10 and 12 m from the body of the spacecraft on a 4 m long magnetometer boom affixed to the outer end of one of ’s three solar array assemblies. The magnetometer sensors are controlled by independent and functionally identical electronics boards within the magnetometer electronics package mounted inside Juno’s massive radiation shielded vault. The imaging sensors are controlled by a fully hardware redundant electronics package also mounted within the radiation vault. Each magnetometer sensor measures the vector magnetic field with 100 ppm absolute vector accuracy over a wide dynamic range (to 16 Gauss = \(1.6 \times 10^{6}\mbox{ nT}\) per axis) with a resolution of ～0.05 nT in the most sensitive dynamic range (±1600 nT per axis). Both magnetometers sample the magnetic field simultaneously at an intrinsic sample rate of 64 vector samples per second. The magnetic field instrumentation may be reconfigured in flight to meet unanticipated needs and is fully hardware redundant. The attitude determination system compares images with an on-board star catalog to provide attitude solutions (quaternions) at a rate of up to 4 solutions per second, and may be configured to acquire images of selected targets for science and engineering analysis. The system tracks and catalogs objects that pass through the imager field of view and also provides a continuous record of radiation exposure. A spacecraft magnetic control program was implemented to provide a magnetically clean environment for the magnetic sensors, and residual spacecraft fields and/or sensor offsets are monitored in flight taking advantage of Juno’s spin (nominally 2 rpm) to separate environmental fields from those that rotate with the spacecraft.     

太阳帆航天器动力学建模与求解

 太阳帆航天器动力学建模与求解是姿态控制与结构振动抑制的基础,具有重要的理论与工程意义。针对带有控制杆和控制叶片的太阳帆航天器,进行结构的合理简化。应用矢量力学基本原理,推导出考虑弹性振动的太阳帆航天器姿态动力学方程,再对其进行简化,分别得到基于控制叶片和控制杆的两类太阳帆航天器的姿态动力学方程,联立太阳帆支撑杆振动方程,结合非约束模态的定义对运行于超地球同步转移轨道的太阳帆航天器动力学方程进行了求解及分析,结果表明所建立的太阳帆动力学模型可准确地描述柔性太阳帆航天器的动力学特性。     

Induced Magnetic Fields in Solar System Bodies

Electromagnetic induction is a powerful technique to study the electrical conductivity of the interior of the Earth and other solar system bodies. Information about the electrical conductivity structure can provide strong constraints on the associated internal composition of planetary bodies. Here we give a review of the basic principles of the electromagnetic induction technique and discuss its application to various bodies of our solar system. We also show that the plasma environment, in which the bodies are embedded, generates in addition to the induced magnetic fields competing plasma magnetic fields. These fields need to be treated appropriately to reliably interpret magnetic field measurements in the vicinity of solar system bodies. Induction measurements are particularly important in the search for liquid water outside of Earth. Magnetic field measurements by the Galileo spacecraft provide strong evidence for a subsurface ocean on Europa and Callisto. The induction technique will provide additional important constraints on the possible subsurface water, when used on future Europa and Ganymede orbiters. It can also be applied to probe Enceladus and Titan with Cassini and future spacecraft.     

The Magnetometer Instrument on MESSENGER

The Magnetometer (MAG) on the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) mission is a low-noise, tri-axial, fluxgate instrument with its sensor mounted on a 3.6-m-long boom. The boom was deployed on March 8, 2005. The primary MAG science objectives are to determine the structure of Mercury’s intrinsic magnetic field and infer its origin. Mariner 10 observations indicate a planetary moment in the range 170 to 350 nT R _M³ (where R _M is Mercury’s mean radius). The uncertainties in the dipole moment are associated with the Mariner 10 trajectory and variability of the measured field. By orbiting Mercury, MESSENGER will significantly improve the determination of dipole and higher-order moments. The latter are essential to understanding the thermal history of the planet. MAG has a coarse range, ±51,300 nT full scale (1.6-nT resolution), for pre-flight testing, and a fine range, ±1,530 nT full scale (0.047-nT resolution), for Mercury operation. A magnetic cleanliness program was followed to minimize variable and static spacecraft-generated fields at the sensor. Observations during and after boom deployment indicate that the fixed residual field is less than a few nT at the location of the sensor, and initial observations indicate that the variable field is below 0.05 nT at least above about 3 Hz. Analog signals from the three axes are low-pass filtered (10-Hz cutoff) and sampled simultaneously by three 20-bit analog-to-digital converters every 50 ms. To accommodate variable telemetry rates, MAG provides 11 output rates from 0.01 s⁻¹ to 20 s⁻¹. Continuous measurement of fluctuations is provided with a digital 1–10 Hz bandpass filter. This fluctuation level is used to trigger high-time-resolution sampling in eight-minute segments to record events of interest when continuous high-rate sampling is not possible. The MAG instrument will provide accurate characterization of the intrinsic planetary field, magnetospheric structure, and dynamics of Mercury’s solar wind interaction.     

航天器自动化测试语言的设计与实现(英文)

航天器自动测试系统是基于各种测试标准的航天器综合测试信息化系统,测试语言是关于各种测试标准描述的形式体系,是提高测试效率的重要手段。在我国多航天器测试的新需求下,航天器测试语言的研究已成为航天器测试领域面临的新挑战。结合当前的测试需求,本文提出了一种高阶航天器测试语言CATOL(China Aerospace Test and Operation Language),介绍了语言的组成结构。为了刻画和定义航天器测试过程,给出了该语言子集 CATOL-PR的语法和操作语义,实现了该语言的原型系统。该语言可促进国内航天器测试的标准化工作,提高测试人员工作效率,使航天器自动化测试工作得到进一步发展。     

The Magnetospheric Multiscale Magnetometers

The success of the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission depends on the accurate measurement of the magnetic field on all four spacecraft. To ensure this success, two independently designed and built fluxgate magnetometers were developed, avoiding single-point failures. The magnetometers were dubbed the digital fluxgate (DFG), which uses an ASIC implementation and was supplied by the Space Research Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the analogue magnetometer (AFG) with a more traditional circuit board design supplied by the University of California, Los Angeles. A stringent magnetic cleanliness program was executed under the supervision of the Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory. To achieve mission objectives, the calibration determined on the ground will be refined in space to ensure all eight magnetometers are precisely inter-calibrated. Near real-time data plays a key role in the transmission of high-resolution observations stored on board so rapid processing of the low-resolution data is required. This article describes these instruments, the magnetic cleanliness program, and the instrument pre-launch calibrations, the planned in-flight calibration program, and the information flow that provides the data on the rapid time scale needed for mission success.     

固定翼无人机航磁探测系统的磁补偿模型分析

近年来,无人机的应用日益广泛,逐渐用于航空物探。在使用固定翼无人机搭载磁力仪进行航磁测量时,必然引入飞行平台干扰,包括与机动无关的干扰和与机动有关的干扰。去除和飞机机动有关的磁干扰,即为磁补偿工作。航磁补偿的经典TOLLES-LAWSON模型将磁干扰分为剩余磁场、感应磁场和涡流磁场。对于固定翼无人机,涡流磁场可以不考虑,将剩余磁场和感应磁场合称为稳态干扰场。主要对飞机干扰的来源和性质进行分析,并在地面设计实验验证铁磁性材料的性质,以加深对磁补偿模型的假设和推导过程的理解。最后,在地面实验平台上测量了飞机磁干扰场的平面分布图,指导航空磁力仪的安装。在将TOLLES-LAWSON模型应用于固定翼无人机航磁探测系统的磁补偿工作时,无人机与有人机相比,在结构和材料方面都有较大差异,因此对模型的物理意义和假设条件的深入理解至关重要,此即本文所述工作成果的出发点。     

Joint Ulysses and ACE observations of a magnetic cloud and the associated solar energetic particle event

On day 49 of 1999 a strong interplanetary shock was observed by the ACE spacecraft located at 1 AU from the Sun. This shock was followed 10 hours later by a magnetic cloud (MC). A large solar energetic particle (SEP) event was observed in association with the arrival of the shock and the MC at ACE. The Ulysses spacecraft, located at 22° S heliolatitude and nearly the same ecliptic longitude as ACE, observed a large SEP event beginning on day 54 that peaked with the arrival of a solar wind and magnetic field disturbance on day 61. A magnetic cloud was observed by Ulysses on days 63–64. We suggest a scenario in which both spacecraft intercepted the same MC, although sampling different regions of it. We describe the effects that the MC produced on the streaming of energetic particles at both spacecraft. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

航天器自动化测试语言研究

航天器测试语言是支撑航天器自动化测试的形式体系及航天器测试过程标准,在当前多航天器批产网络化测试的新需求下,测试语言标准体系研究对于提高航天器测试自动化水平和保障测试过程安全具有重要意义。通过对现有典型航天器测试语言的全面分析和比较,总结出基本特征,并结合当前先进的网络计算技术,提出了我国航天器测试语言发展的目标和方向,同时针对国内航天器测试语言研究设计工作的不足,给出一种航天器测试语言CATOL(China Aerospace Test and Operation Language)。该研究对提高我国航天器测试业务规范水平和测试人员的工作效率、促进航天器测试自动化研究的发展将起到一定的推动作用。     

The THEMIS Magnetic Cleanliness Program

The five identical THEMIS Spacecraft, launched in February 2007, carry two magnetometers on each probe, one DC fluxgate (FGM) and one AC search coil (SCM). Due to the small size of the THEMIS probes, and the short length of the magnetometer booms, magnetic cleanliness was a particularly complex task for this medium sized mission. The requirements leveled on the spacecraft and instrument design required a detailed approach, but one that did not hamper the development of the probes during their short design, production and testing phase. In this paper we describe the magnetic cleanliness program’s requirements, design guidelines, program implementation, mission integration and test philosophy and present test results, and mission on-orbit performance.     

Relationship Between Substorm Auroras and Processes in the Near-Earth Magnetotail

Although the auroral substorm has been long regarded as a manifestation of the magnetospheric substorm, a direct relation of active auroras to certain magnetospheric processes is still debatable. To investigate the relationship, we combine the data of the UV imager onboard the Polar satellite with plasma and magnetic field measurements by the Geotail spacecraft. The poleward edge of the auroral bulge, as determined from the images obtained at the LHBL passband, is found to be conjugated with the region where the oppositely directed fast plasma flows observed in the near-Earth plasma sheet during substorms are generated. We conclude that the auroras forming the bulge are due to the near-Earth reconnection process. This implies that the magnetic flux through the auroral bulge is equal to the flux dissipated in the magnetotail during the substorm. Comparison of the magnetic flux through the auroral bulge with the magnetic flux accumulated in the tail lobe during the growth phase shows that these parameters have the comparable values. This is a clear evidence of the loading–unloading scheme of substorm development. It is shown that the area of the auroral bulge developing during substorm is proportional to the total (magnetic plus plasma) pressure decrease in the magnetotail. These findings stress the importance of auroral bulge observations for monitoring of substorm intensity in terms of the magnetic flux and energy dissipation.     

The Cassini/Huygens Mission to the Saturnian System

The international Cassini/Huygens mission consists of the Cassini Saturn Orbiter spacecraft and the Huygens Titan Probe that is targeted for entry into the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. From launch on October 15, 1997 to arrival at Saturn in July 2004, Cassini/Huygens will travel over three billion kilometers. Once in orbit about Saturn, Huygens is released from the orbiter and enters Titan's atmosphere. The Probe descends by parachute and measures the properties of the atmosphere. If the landing is gentle, the properties of the surface will be measured too. Then the orbiter commences a four-year tour of the Saturnian system with 45 flybys of Titan and multiple encounters with the icy moons. The rings, the magnetosphere and Saturn itself are all studied as well as the interactions among them. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

航空发动机整体叶盘磁力研磨光整实验

磁力研磨工艺抛光整体叶盘时,工件与磁极干涉严重,用径向磁极代替轴向磁极加工可有效避免干涉,但研磨压力小、研磨效率低.通过对磁力研磨径向磁极加工机理和单个研磨粒子的微观受力情况详细分析得到:提高磁场强度变化率可有效增大磁力研磨效率.经有限元模拟分析发现磁极表面沿轴线方向开矩形槽可使磁场强度变化率提高.对镍基高温合金材质整体叶盘进行磁力研磨实验,并对实验数据分析研究得出:以径向磁极为工具的磁力研磨法可实现对整体叶盘的无干涉加工,磁极开矩形槽后磁力研磨效率可提高31%,叶盘表面粗糙度值由研磨前的1.2μm降至0.18μm,验证了磁力研磨工艺对高效、高质量实现整体叶盘表面光整加工的可行性.      

基于椭圆空腔虚拟势场的航天器集群控制方法

航天器集群由多个航天器在空间轨道上近距离飞行,进行信息交换,并相互协同共同完成空间任务。航天器集群作为智能集群在空间领域的表现形式,是智能集群的重要组成部分。当前,许多空间科学研究机构提出了多个航天器集群的研究计划,如 ANTS计划、APIES计划等。文章以在小行星带探测航天器集群为研究对象,提出了航天器集群的自组织控制方法,利用虚拟势场力使得与这个参考航天器构成最大距离可控的空间构型,从而保 证了航天器集群中的所有航天器共同构成松散空间构型。     

Crustal Magnetic Fields of Terrestrial Planets

Magnetic field measurements are very valuable, as they provide constraints on the interior of the telluric planets and Moon. The Earth possesses a planetary scale magnetic field, generated in the conductive and convective outer core. This global magnetic field is superimposed on the magnetic field generated by the rocks of the crust, of induced (i.e. aligned on the current main field) or remanent (i.e. aligned on the past magnetic field). The crustal magnetic field on the Earth is very small scale, reflecting the processes (internal or external) that shaped the Earth. At spacecraft altitude, it reaches an amplitude of about 20 nT. Mars, on the contrary, lacks today a magnetic field of core origin. Instead, there is only a remanent magnetic field, which is one to two orders of magnitude larger than the terrestrial one at spacecraft altitude. The heterogeneous distribution of the Martian magnetic anomalies reflects the processes that built the Martian crust, dominated by igneous and cratering processes. These latter processes seem to be the driving ones in building the lunar magnetic field. As Mars, the Moon has no core-generated magnetic field. Crustal magnetic features are very weak, reaching only 30 nT at 30-km altitude. Their distribution is heterogeneous too, but the most intense anomalies are located at the antipodes of the largest impact basins. The picture is completed with Mercury, which seems to possess an Earth-like, global magnetic field, which however is weaker than expected. Magnetic exploration of Mercury is underway, and will possibly allow the Hermean crustal field to be characterized. This paper presents recent advances in our understanding and interpretation of the crustal magnetic field of the telluric planets and Moon.