Enabling Boomless CubeSat Magnetic Field Measurements With the Quad-Mag Magnetometer and an Improved Underdetermined Blind Source Separation Algorithm

In situ magnetic field measurements are often difficult to obtain due to the presence of stray magnetic fields generated by spacecraft electrical subsystems. The conventional solution is to implement strict magnetic cleanliness requirements and place magnetometers on a deployable boom. However, this method is not always feasible on low-cost platforms due to factors such as increased design complexity, increased cost, and volume limitations. To overcome these problems, we propose using the Quad-Mag CubeSat magnetometer with an improved Underdetermined Blind Source Separation (UBSS) noise removal algorithm. The Quad-Mag consists of four magnetometer sensors in a single CubeSat form-factor card that allows distributed measurements of stray magnetic fields. The UBSS algorithm can remove stray magnetic fields without prior knowledge of the magnitude, orientation, or number of noise sources. UBSS is a two-stage algorithm that identifies signals through cluster analysis and separates them through compressive sensing. We use UBSS with single-source point detection to improve the identification of noise signals and iteratively-weighted compressed sensing to separate noise signals from the ambient magnetic field. Using a mock CubeSat, we demonstrate in the lab that UBSS reduces four noise signals producing more than 100 nT of noise at each magnetometer to below the expected instrument resolution (5 nT at 65 Hz). Additionally, we show that the integrated Quad-Mag and improved UBSS system works well for 1U, 2U, 3U, and 6U CubeSats in simulation. Our results show that the Quad-Mag and UBSS noise cancellation package enables high-fidelity magnetic field measurements from a CubeSat without a boom.

Automated summary

In the traditional method, magnetometers are placed on a deployable boom to measure stray magnetic fields generated by spacecraft electrical subsystems. However, this is not feasible on low-cost platforms. To overcome this problem, we propose using the Quad-Mag CubeSat magnetometer with an improved UBSS noise removal algorithm. We demonstrate in the lab that UBSS reduces noise signals, enabling high-fidelity magnetic field measurements from a CubeSat without a boom.