SOSMAG

SOSMAG (Service Oriented Space Magnetometer) is a development for the European Space Agency, which aims to provide a ready-to-use magnetometer package for any suitable spacecraft while omitting magnetic cleanliness requirements.

The basic idea is to use additional sensors on the body of the spacecraft to enable monitoring of magnetic disturbers during flight. SOSMAG consists of two sensors on a short boom (1 m), two additional sensors to be mounted on or in the spacecraft near the main disturbers, with simultaneous measurements at high data rate. The onboard software allows automated correction for the effects of the DC fields of the spacecraft, after a learning sequence in an early flight stage.

The engineering model of the system was successfully developed and tested by IWF together with Magson GmbH in Berlin, Technical University Braunschweig, and Imperial College London. A flight model was developed for the GEO-KOMPSAT-2A spacecraft, launched in December 2018.