Student: Kenton Greene, graduate student in Physics, University of Iowa
Faculty Advisor: David M. Miles
Characterizing and Flight Demonstrating a New, High Stability Fluxgate Magnetometer Design
Fluxgate magnetometers are important tools for measuring space plasmas. However, fluxgate baseline measurements are known to drift over time. This instability can make it difficult to resolve magnetic features like planetary crustal fields which are important to understanding planetary geology. My research focuses on characterizing a new design for a fluxgate magnetometer called the Tesseract that looks promising for making stable, reliable magnetic field measurements in a space environment. Tesseract was flight demonstrated on the ACES-II sounding rockets. This project will focus on a detailed characterization of Tesseract’s performance, both in the laboratory using specialized testing equipment, and in space over the course of the rocket flight.