Two researchers at the University of Iowa have been awarded $598,563 from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) to build constellation ready magnetometers for use on small spacecraft.

David Miles, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Ananya Sen Gupta, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering won the award as part of AFOSR’s Defense Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (DEPSCoR) program. 

The goal of this project is to enable high-fidelity magnetic field measurements from small spacecraft, particularly payloads of opportunity on platforms that aren’t purpose built for to produce minimal magnetic noise. The Miles Research Group will be manufacturing a miniature instrument suitable for a nanosatellite (about the size of two loaves of bread). Prof. Sen Gupta's group is developing the signal processing techniques that will be used to identify and mitigate local magnetic noise from the spacecraft to enable high-fidelity measurements.