Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik
Magnetometer
Deutsche Version MPE HEG X-Ray Astronomy Wave ROSAT
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Magnetometer
The magnetometer consists of a three-axis sensor.
It provides vector-component information as analog signals,
suitable to determine magnitude and direction of the environmental
magnetic field.
Relative to the spacecraft coordinate system (right handed x,y,z),
the magnetometer outputs correspond to a right handed
perpendicular-axis orientation.
The signs of the output voltages correspond to the signs of
the magnetic vector components (the signs of the sensor coordinate axes).
Three analog outputs with a 
10 Volts range represent the three
vector components of the measured magnetic field.
The magnetometer is mounted on the deployable antenna boom to displace it a sufficient distance from sources of stray magnetic fields within the S/C which would otherwise cause interference. The electronics are placed within the spacecraft structure.
| Range | 50 A/m |
| Scale factor | 0.2 V/A/m |
| Bandwidth | 1.0 Hz |
| Bias error | < 0.5 A/m over the temperature range |
| Linear error | < 5% |
| Alignment |  0.50 |
The measurement performance parameters are given in Tab. 1.3.
After the loss of the Y-gyro, the magnetometer has been used for coarse target acquisition. Extensive investigations to test the method were performed at MPE. The method became operational in 1991 October and after the loss of the Z-gyro and the degradation of the X-gyro replaces nearly the complete gyro package.
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