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By European Space Agency
The beginning of the industrial development of LISA was among the highlights for the European Space Agency on the second day of the International Paris Air Show.
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By NASA
A NASA-sponsored team is creating a new approach to measure magnetic fields by developing a new system that can both take scientific measurements and provide spacecraft attitude control functions. This new system is small, lightweight, and can be accommodated onboard the spacecraft, eliminating the need for the boom structure that is typically required to measure Earth’s magnetic field, thus allowing smaller, lower-cost spacecraft to take these measurements. In fact, this new system could not only enable small spacecraft to measure the magnetic field, it could replace the standard attitude control systems in future spacecraft that orbit Earth, allowing them to provide the important global measurements that enable us to understand how Earth’s magnetic field protects us from dangerous solar particles.
Photo of the aurora (taken in Alaska) showing small scale features that are often present. Credit: NASA/Sebastian Saarloos
Solar storms drive space weather that threatens our many assets in space and can also disrupt Earth’s upper atmosphere impacting our communications and power grids. Thankfully, the Earth’s magnetic field protects us and funnels much of that energy into the north and south poles creating aurorae. The aurorae are a beautiful display of the electromagnetic energy and currents that flow throughout the Earth’s space environment. They often have small-scale magnetic features that affect the total energy flowing through the system. Observing these small features requires multiple simultaneous observations over a broad range of spatial and temporal scales, which can be accomplished by constellations of small spacecraft.
To enable such constellations, NASA is developing an innovative hybrid magnetometer that makes both direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC) magnetic measurements and is embedded in the spacecraft’s attitude determination and control system (ADCS)—the system that enables the satellite to know and control where it is pointing. High-performance, low SWAP+C (low-size, weight and power + cost) instruments are required, as is the ability to manufacture and test large numbers of these instruments within a typical flight build schedule. Future commercial or scientific satellites could use these small, lightweight embedded hybrid magnetometers to take the types of measurements that will expand our understanding of space weather and how Earth’s magnetic field responds to solar storms
It is typically not possible to take research-quality DC and AC magnetic measurements using sensors within an ADCS since the ADCS is inside the spacecraft and near contaminating sources of magnetic noise such as magnetic torque rods—the electromagnets that generate a magnetic field and push against the Earth’s magnetic field to control the orientation of a spacecraft. Previous missions that have flown both DC and AC magnetometers placed them on long booms pointing in opposite directions from the satellite to keep the sensors as far from the spacecraft and each other as possible. In addition, the typical magnetometer used by an ADCS to measure the orientation of the spacecraft with respect to the geomagnetic field does not sample fast enough to measure the high-frequency signals needed to make magnetic field observations.
A NASA-sponsored team at the University of Michigan is developing a new hybrid magnetometer and attitude determination and control system (HyMag-ADCS) that is a low-SWAP single package that can be integrated into a spacecraft without booms. HyMag-ADCS consists of a three-axis search coil AC magnetometer and a three-axis Quad-Mag DC magnetometer. The Quad-Mag DC magnetometer uses machine learning to enable boomless DC magnetometery, and the hybrid search-coil AC magnetometer includes attitude determination torque rods to enable the single 1U volume (103 cm) system to perform ADCS functions as well as collect science measurements.
The magnetic torque rod and search coil sensor (left) and the Quad-Mag magnetometer prototype (right). Credit: Mark Moldwin The HyMag-ADCS team is incorporating the following technologies into the system to ensure success.
Quad-Mag Hardware: The Quad-Mag DC magnetometer consists of four magneto-inductive magnetometers and a space-qualified micro-controller mounted on a single CubeSat form factor (10 x 10 cm) printed circuit board. These two types of devices are commercially available. Combining multiple sensors on a single board increases the instrument’s sensitivity by a factor of two compared to using a single sensor. In addition, the distributed sensors enable noise identification on small satellites, providing the science-grade magnetometer sensing that is key for both magnetic field measurements and attitude determination. The same type of magnetometer is part of the NASA Artemis Lunar Gateway Heliophysics Environmental and Radiation Measurement Experiment Suite (HERMES) Noisy Environment Magnetometer in a Small Integrated System (NEMISIS) magnetometer scheduled for launch in early 2027.
Dual-use Electromagnetic Rods: The HyMag-ADCS team is using search coil electronics and torque rod electronics that were developed for other efforts in a new way. Use of these two electronics systems enables the electromagnetic rods in the HyMag-ADCS system to be used in two different ways—as torque rods for attitude determination and as search coils to make scientific measurements. The search coil electronics were designed for ground-based measurements to observe ultra-low frequency signals up to a few kHz that are generated by magnetic beacons for indoor localization. The torque rod electronics were designed for use on CubeSats and have flown on several University of Michigan CubeSats (e.g., CubeSat-investigating Atmospheric Density Response to Extreme driving [CADRE]). The HyMag-ADCS concept is to use the torque rod electronics as needed for attitude control and use the search coil electronics the rest of the time to make scientific AC magnetic field measurements.
Machine Learning Algorithms for Spacecraft Noise Identification: Applying machine learning to these distributed sensors will autonomously remove noise generated by the spacecraft. The team is developing a powerful Unsupervised Blind Source Separation (UBSS) algorithm and a new method called Wavelet Adaptive Interference Cancellation for Underdetermined Platforms (WAIC-UP) to perform this task, and this method has already been demonstrated in simulation and the lab.
The HyMag-ADCS system is early in its development stage, and a complete engineering design unit is under development. The project is being completed primarily with undergraduate and graduate students, providing hands-on experiential training for upcoming scientists and engineers.
Early career electrical engineer Julio Vata and PhD student Jhanene Heying-Melendrez with art student resident Ana Trujillo Garcia in the magnetometer lab testing prototypes. Credit: Mark Moldwin For additional details, see the entry for this project on NASA TechPort .
Project Lead: Prof. Mark Moldwin, University of Michigan
Sponsoring Organization: NASA Heliophysics Division’s Heliophysics Technology and Instrument Development for Science (H-TIDeS) program.
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Last Updated Jun 17, 2025 Related Terms
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By NASA
2 Min Read NASA Seeks Commercial Feedback on Space Communication Solutions
An illustration of a commercial space relay ecosystem. Credits: NASA / Morgan Johnson NASA is seeking information from U.S. and international companies about Earth proximity relay communication and navigation capabilities as the agency aims to use private industry satellite communications services for emerging agency science missions.
“As part of NASA’s Communications Services Project, the agency is working with private industry to solve challenges for future exploration,” said Kevin Coggins, deputy associate administrator of NASA’s SCaN Program. “Through this effort, NASA missions will have a greater ability to command spacecraft, resolve issues in flight, and bring home more data and scientific discoveries collected across the solar system.”
In November 2024, NASA announced the TDRS (Tracking and Data Relay Satellite) system, the agency’s network of satellites relaying communications from the International Space Station, ground controls on Earth, and spacecraft, will support only existing missions.
NASA, as one of many customers, will obtain commercial satellite services rather than owning and operating a replacement for the existing satellite system. As NASA transitions to commercial relay services, the agency will leverage commercial capabilities to ensure support for future missions and stimulate private investment into the Earth proximity region. Commercial service offerings could become available to NASA missions as early as 2028 and will continue to be demonstrated and validated through 2031.
NASA’s SCaN issued a Request for Information on May 30. Responses are due by 5 p.m. EDT on Friday, July 11.
NASA’s SCaN Program serves as the management office for the agency’s space communications and navigation. More than 100 NASA and non-NASA missions rely on SCaN’s two networks, the Near Space Network and the Deep Space Network, to support astronauts aboard the International Space Station and future Artemis missions, monitor Earth’s weather, support lunar exploration, and uncover the solar system and beyond.
Learn more about NASA’s SCaN Program at:
https://www.nasa.gov/scan
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Last Updated Jun 16, 2025 EditorJimi RussellContactMolly KearnsLocationGlenn Research Center Related Terms
Commercial Space General Glenn Research Center The Future of Commercial Space Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
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By European Space Agency
Video: 00:24:33 Watch the replay of the ESA-CNES press conference held at the Paris Air Show 2025 (Le Bourget) on 16 June 2025, with Josef Aschbacher, Director General of ESA, and Lionel Suchet, Executive Vice President of CNES.
Download the transcript.
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By European Space Agency
Video: 00:01:40 Proba-3 artificially created what is normally a rare natural phenomenon: a total solar eclipse.
In a world first, ESA’s Proba-3 satellites flew in perfect formation, blocking the Sun’s bright disc to reveal its fiery corona. This enigmatic outer layer burns millions of degrees hotter than the Sun’s surface and drives the solar storms that can disrupt life on Earth.
With its first artificial eclipse, Proba-3 has captured detailed images of this mysterious region, offering scientists new insights into our star’s behaviour.
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Access the related broadcast qality footage.
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