Space Instrumentation Build and Calibration Facilities
The Space Magnetometer Laboratory has many facilities to enable us to build and calibrate magnetic field experiments for space missions.
Facilities
- Building instruments
- Ground Calibration of Magnetometers
- Measuring and demagnetising spacecraft subsystems
We have the following capabilites in house:
- Electronics Design, Assembly & Test
- Inspection Quality Assurance
- Manufacture of precision mechanical parts
- Clean Room Class 10,000
To correctly characterise our magnetometers for the space environment they are rigourously tested and calibrated at a calibration facility on the ground.
Our calibration facilites are located out of London in the magnetically quiet environment at the site of Ultra Electronics in Staffordshire. We have a 3 axis Helmholtz coil facility for characterising our instruments over a temperature range of -50C to 125C and a low field, stable temperature test environment for long term drift measurements. Good characterisation of the instruments on the ground before flight is essential for effective in-flight calibration of the instruments in space.
We have a portable coil facility for measuring the magnetic moment of and demagnetising spacecraft subsystems such as propulsions systems, batteries, electronics and payload. This was used on the NASA Themis mission.