The new miniaturised magnetometer, called SIGMA, allowed nanosatellites to act as high quality mapping systems for Earth’s magnetic field from low Earth orbit. This data is important for applications such as smartphone navigation, aviation, and small satellites.
Professor Hendrik Ulbricht, School of Physics and Astronomy said: "Our research group is experienced in working with magnetometers and this has been a great opportunity to work in the space development environment with a real end goal."
While researchers brought expertise in magnetic field sensing and testing, our rapid prototyping facility was used to design, build and test the printed circuit boards (PCBs) for the magnetometer.
The collaboration, funded by SPRINT (Space Research and Innovation Network for Technology).
One of the main challenges in developing the next generation of geomagnetic monitoring satellites is miniaturisation. The magnetometry expertise at the University of Southampton will play a vital part in enabling us to take our technology smaller, without sacrificing the quality of the data that we can capture.
With the European Space Agency SWARM satellites due to be decommissioned, we only have a short service window to develop a sustainable service that can replace or recover this key data. The SPRINT project will accelerate the development of our technology.
Hugo Shelley, Director, Iota Technology