SMILE Magnetometer engineering model
Date: 08 May 2020
Satellite: SMILE
Depicts: Magnetometer (MAG) engineering model
Copyright: NSSC/CAS
Engineering model of the SMILE Magnetometer (MAG) that includes the electronic box (grey) and one of the two magnetic sensors (yellow box) connected by the power and data cable.
MAG is one of four instrument and experiment packages on the SMILE spacecraft. It will be used to determine the orientation and magnitude of the solar wind's magnetic field, and to detect any solar wind shocks or discontinuities passing over the spacecraft.
Two tri-axial sensors will be mounted away from the spacecraft on a 3-m-long boom some 80 cm apart, with the corresponding electronics unit mounted on SMILE's main body. This configuration will let the MAG act as a gradiometer, and allow SMILE's background magnetic field to be accurately determined and subtracted from any measurements. MAG will measure the three components of the magnetic field in the range +/- 12 800 nT.
MAG is a joint venture between the Chinese National Space Science Centre, CAS, and the Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences.
