Magsat

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Magsat
Magsat
Type: Research satellite
Country: United StatesUnited States United States
Operator: National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA NASA
COSPAR-ID : 1979-094A
Mission dates
Dimensions: 181 kg
Begin: October 30, 1979 at 14:16 UTC
Starting place: Vandenberg SLC-5
Launcher: Scout G-1
Status: burned up on June 11, 1980
Orbit data
Rotation time : 93.7 min
Orbit inclination : 96.8 °
Apogee height :  561 km
Perigee height :  352 km

Magsat ( " Mag netic Field Sat ellite", as AEM-3 , or Explorer 61 known) was a scientific satellite as part of the Explorer program of NASA .

Layout and function

Sketch by Magsat

The satellite was specially designed to study the Earth's nearby magnetic field . In addition, he was able to collect data on the geological structure and composition of the earth.

Magsat had a mass of 181 kilograms. It was equipped with two magnetometers: a three-axis fluxgate magnetometer to detect the strength and direction of the magnetic field and an ion vapor / vector magnetometer to measure the field generated by the magnetometer itself. In order to be able to measure the magnetic field unaffected by the satellite's own magnetic field, the magnetometers were mounted on a long boom that was extended in orbit.

Mission history

Magsat was launched on October 30, 1979 with the Scout G launcher from Vandenberg Air Force Base and remained in service until the spring of 1980.

After the launch, the satellite was brought into an orbit with a 96.8 ° inclination and aligned with the sun. The height of the railway fluctuated between 352 and 561 kilometers. The satellite remained in a near-Earth orbit so that the magnetometers could better capture the Earth's magnetic field. The collected data allowed a never before seen three-dimensional representation of the magnetic field distribution of the earth. Together with his successor Ørsted , he was an important component in explaining the declining geomagnetic field.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b F. Mobley, L. Eckard, G. Fountain, G. Ousley: MAGSAT - A new satellite to survey the earth's magnetic field. In: IEEE Transactions on Magnetics. 16 (5), 1980, pp. 758-760.
  2. ↑ A History of Vector Magnetometers in Space ( Memento from May 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), PDF
  3. ^ Vandenberg AFB Launch History. The Space Archive in spacearchive.info
  4. ^ R. Langel, G. Ousley, J. Berbert, J. Murphy, M. Settle: The MAGSAT Mission . In: Geophysical Research letters. Vol. 9, No. 4, 1982, pp. 243-245.
  5. ↑ G. Hulot, C. Eymin, B. Langlais, M. Mandea, N. Olsen: Small-scale structure of the geodynamo inferred from Oersted and Magsat satellite data . In: Nature . tape 416 , no. 6881 , April 2002, p. 620-623 , doi : 10.1038 / 416620a , PMID 11948347 .
  6. ↑ NASA and USGS magnetic database "rocks" the world NASA Web Feature, NASA, May 17, 2004