Helium Magnetometer
Helium Magnetometer: highly sensitive and accurate self-calibrating magnetometer.
Transcript
00:00:00 [Music] forces deep within earth create a giant invisible magnetic bubble that protects us from solar radiation by understanding Earth's magnetosphere better and comparing it with the magnetic fields on other planets scientists are getting closer to unlocking the mysteries of Earth's core the history of our solar system and perhaps even changes in our
00:00:21 climate to do this NASA flies Advanced instrument called magnetometers on spacecraft you can think of these instruments as kind of an MRI for planets that let science see what's previously unseen there are two types of magnetometers one is the vector magnetometer and it's basically a compass that tells you which direction the magnetic Field's pointing and the
00:00:41 second is a scalar magnetometer and uh there they want to know how just how big is the magnetic field and how is it changing with Time Dr Robert slokum runs a small company near Dallas Texas called po Atomic the company is working with NASA to create a self-calibrating helium magnetometer the application in past NASA experiments in Earth orbit has been to put three Vector magnetometers so
00:01:06 they could look in the three directions like three compasses and a scaler magnetometer to calibrate these instruments because they're they're not accurate they're sensitive but they uh they vary in their uh uh readings po Atomic combined all three Vector instruments into a single unit which is able to look at the scalar field at the same time for calibration this ensures
00:01:27 highly accurate Vector readings just in terms of innov ation I think the self-calibrating vector magnetometer solves problems that no one's ever solved before so it's a we call it a disruptive technology is just something nobody's been able to do before to accelerate technology development for NASA projects and missions P Atomic has leveraged funding awarded through NASA's
00:01:48 small business Innovation research or sbir program which is an element of the agency's Innovative Partnerships program about 20 years ago po Atomic started working with NASA's jet propulsion Laboratory to develop a universal helium magnetometer for space that was 10 times more sensitive than the best traditional lamp pump magnetometers The Firm later worked with JPL on scalar magnetometer
00:02:11 electronics for the enormously successful Cassini mission to study Saturn and its moons in 2009 NASA selected pole Atomic to build a self-calibrating vector magnetometer for a fleet of Earth orbiting satellites and high altitude aircraft used to advance the understanding of geomagnetism NASA's technical requirement are stringent but they put
00:02:32 po Atomic on a path to deliver the most sensitive magnetometers ever this capability has led to additional Partnerships between the firm and other organizations for instance the US Navy has plans to update their current Fleet of sub hunting aircraft with polar atomics A asq 233 magnetometer the Navy has used Airborne magnetometers toine enemy Subs as farb as World War II but
00:02:55 never with such pinpoint accuracy we have a a Navy instrument that's 30 times more sensitive than uh than anything the Navy's had before so it flies in aircraft helicopters unmanned aerial vehicles and not only can see the magnetism of the submarine but it can see the heartbeat the screws turning and the Machinery running inside the submarine the US military is also
00:03:16 looking at using the technology to find buried sea mines underground facilities hidden missiles even tanks cloaked by buildings or trees seeing the Unseen the aid of Technology derived through Innovative partnership sh it's helping us understand our world better than ever before and keeping it a safer place for future Generations [Music]