Hua Zhao
Biography & lecture abstract
Lecture: Contribution of Yinghuo-1 to the Martian gravity field model
The Yinghuo-1 micro-satellite would be launched together with Phobos-Grunt in November 2011 to investigate the space environment around Mars. YH-1 and Phobos-Grunt form a two-point measurement configuration in the Martian space environment, and are equipped with similar magnetic field and plasma detecting experiments. Their payloads would allow the two spacecraft to undertake a coordinated exploration of the planet Mars. YH-1 would orbit Mars with a periapsis of 800 km above the Martian surface, and an apoapsis of about 80000 km to the center of Mars. The orbit inclination is about 23 degrees to the Martian equator. A flux-gate type magnetometer, with two sensors, is developed for the YH-1 spacecraft. Two sensors are mounted on one side of the deployable solar panel with a radial separation of about 45 cm, to function as a gradiometer to minimize the affects of platform remanence. The dynamic range of the magnetometer is ± 256 nT with a 16-bit ADC converter, and the noise level is better than 0.01 nT/√Hz, to measure three-component magnetic field from DC to 10Hz. The 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 iwill be presented, as well as some test and calibration results.