The magnetic test facility is used for measuring magnetic moment, eliminating residual magnetism, and verifying the functions of a magnetic attitude controller, etc., to prevent the disturbance on the attitudes of a spacecraft due to the magnetism from the geomagnetic field and the magnetized spacecraft itself. Since those tests require a space free of the disturbance magnetic field derived not only from the geomagnetic field but from buildings, vehicles, etc., this facility provides a high precision wide-area “zero-magnetic field” by means of a three-axis Braunbek coil (main coil) with the maximum diameter of 15.5 m and a disturbance detector which detects magnetic disturbance, in addition to a magnetically-controlled field kept in the area of 300 m radius centered around the measurement room.
The facility is also capable of highly-accurate calibration on magnetometers by creating the standard magnetic field in the “zero-magnetic field”, where diversified magnetometers to be loaded on spacecraft have been calibrated.
This is the largest and an extremely rare magnetic test facility in Japan that can cancel the geomagnetic field to create a “zero-magnetic field”, and is therefore expected to contribute to a wide variety of fields.
