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The design, characteristics, and performance of a CubeSat magnetometer board (Quad-Mag) equipped with four PNI RM3100 magnetometers is presented. The low size, weight, power, and cost of the RM3100 enables the inclusion of four sensors on a single board, allowing a potential factor of 2 reduction in the noise floor established for an individual sensor via oversampling with multiple sensors. The instrument experimentally achieved a noise floor of 5.34 nT (individual axis), averaging across each axis of the four magnetometers, at a 65 Hz sampling rate. This approaches the theoretically established limit for the system of 4.37 nT at 40 Hz. A single onboard Texas Instrument MSP430 microcontroller handles synchronization of the magnetometers and facilitates data collection through a simple UART-based command interface to a host system. The Quad-Mag system has a mass of 59.05 g and total power consumption of 23 mW while sampling and 14 mW while idle. The Quad-Mag enables nearly 1 nT magnetic field measurements at 1 Hz using commercial off-the-shelf sensors for space applications under optimal conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The results of a destructive single-event effect susceptibility radiation test of the PNI RM3100 magnetometer sensor, specifically the MagI 2 C ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) on the sensor board are presented. The sensor is a low-resource commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) magneto-inductive magnetometer. The device was monitored for destructive events and functional interruptions during exposure to a heavy ion beam at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's 88 ′′ Cyclotron. The RM3100 did not experience any destructive single-event effects when irradiated to a total fluence of 1.4 × 10 7 cm -2 at an effective linear energy transfer (LET) of 76.7 MeV cm 2 mg -1 while operated at nominal voltage (3.3 V) and elevated temperature (85 ∘ C). When these results are combined with previous total ionizing dose tests showing no failures up to 150 kRad (Si), we conclude that the PNI RM3100 is extremely radiation tolerant and can be used in a variety of space environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The results of two radiation test campaigns on a low-cost commercial off-the-shelf magnetometer are presented. The test setup and the total ionization dose (TID) levels studied were designed to meet the requirements of a mission to land on Europa. Based on the Europa Lander Science Definition Team report, instruments inside an aluminum vault at the surface of Europa would need to withstand TID of up to 300 krad(SI). In order to evaluate the performance of the PNI RM3100 magnetometer, nine separate sensors were irradiated at two different facilities during two separate campaigns and under different configurations, including passive and active tests. Of the nine sensors, seven survived the TID of 300 krad(SI) while the other two sensors started presenting failures after reaching 150 krad(SI). Post-irradiation tests showed that eight of the nine sensors continued to work without appreciable degradation after stopping exposure, while one sensor stopped working altogether. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new sensor for measuring low-amplitude magnetic fields that is ideal for small spacecraft is presented. The novel measurement principle enables the fabrication of a low-cost sensor with low power consumption and with measuring capabilities that are comparable to recent developments for CubeSat applications. The current magnetometer, a software-modified version of a commercial sensor, is capable of detecting fields with amplitudes as low as 8:7nT at 40Hz and 2:7nT at 1Hz, with a noise floor of 4pT p Hz at 1Hz. The sensor has a linear response to less than 3% over a range of ±100000nT. All of these features make the magneto-inductive principle a promising technology for the development of magnetic sensors for both space-borne and ground-based applications to study geomagnetic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]