Design and development of a deployable boom for the MAG payload onboard Aditya-L1 spacecraft

Abstract

To measure the local magnetic field in space, magnetometers are regularly flown onboard space missions. In general, the spacecrafts carrying the magnetic field measuring instruments themselves generate a magnetic field which acts as magnetic noise thereby compromising the accurate measurements of magnetic fields onboard. To overcome this handicap, the spacecrafts employ long booms so that the magnetic field sensors are placed near the tip of these booms away from the spacecraft and the magnetic contamination produced by it can be avoided. The first Indian solar mission, to continuously observe and study the Sun, Aditya-L1 is placed in a halo-orbit around the first Lagrangian (L1) point. A fluxgate magnetometer (MAG) is one of the seven payloads onboard Aditya-L1 spacecraft to measure the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) around the L1 point. A 6 m long non-conducting deployable boom holds two sets of the MAG sensors. In this paper, the technical design and the realization of this MAG boom is described which is working as expected in an orbit around the L1 point.