“We are on the verge of proving that small, affordable satellites can deliver the high-quality magnetic data our nation depends on,” said Mike Paniccia, NGA’s program manager for the World Magnetic Model. “These teams have spent the past few years pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with CubeSat technology, and this launch is the moment where all of that ingenuity meets the ultimate test.”

This mission represents the first-ever effort to collect reliable geomagnetic data using CubeSat technology. Once in orbit, the three CubeSats, equipped with novel solutions for precisely measuring Earth’s magnetic field, will provide data to update the World Magnetic Model — a critical infrastructure that underpins navigation for military operations, commercial aviation, and everyday mobile devices worldwide.

The current World Magnetic Model, WMM2025, is maintained using data from the European Space Agency’s Swarm mission, launched in 2013. NGA launched the MagQuest competition in 2019, seeking new, more resilient ways to collect geomagnetic data.

The CubeSat solutions developed through MagQuest can be built, launched, and operated for a fraction of the cost of the current system. MagQuest also demonstrates the effectiveness of open innovation and interagency collaboration in tackling a vital national security challenge.  Testing facilities and experts at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, supported technology evaluations and analysis; NASA’s Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation administered the challenge; and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Environmental Information provided technical support.

MagQuest’s open innovation approach intentionally attracted novel solutions from a unique group of innovators. Each team has developed a distinct CubeSat solution for collecting high-quality geomagnetic data from low-Earth orbit:

• Compact Spaceborne Magnetic Observatory CubeSat, University of Colorado Boulder
• Diamond-Powered Geomagnetic Data Collection from LEO, Spire Global and SBQuantum
• Io-1, Iota Technology

The teams delivered their completed satellites to Exolaunch for final integration for launch. Following a successful launch and satellite deployment, each team will begin geomagnetic data collection and compare their findings to WMM2025.

An expert review panel will evaluate each team’s data across key milestones. The results of MagQuest will inform NGA’s acquisition strategy for a WMM global magnetic field data collection capability, to support production of the next global update, WMM2030.

Source: NGA

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The post NGA’s MagQuest moves forward appeared first on Intelligence Community News.

Led by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, MagQuest is a multi-million dollar competition to find more accurate and efficient ways to map the earth’s electromagnetic field, also known as the World Magnetic Model (WMM). Aircraft, ships, cars and trucks, along with billions of smartphone users rely on the WMM every day for navigational purposes. However, as shifts in the Earth’s magnetic field continue to accelerate, the WMM must be monitored more closely, and updated more often to ensure the model’s accuracy, while keeping people and goods flowing safely.

“It is an honor for us to be invited to participate in the final phase of this prestigious competition. We see this as a validation of our years of unwavering work in developing our diamond-powered quantum magnetometer and compensation algorithms,” said David Roy-Guay, CEO and co-founder of SBQuantum. “Testing the instrument in space represents a fantastic opportunity to show the entire industry what we have built, and to highlight the tremendous potential of quantum-enabled sensors not only for aerospace, but for various other industry verticals as well.”

The MagQuest Challenge resumes this month for its final phase, which includes testing of the 3 remaining solutions. SBQuantum’s offering combines its diamond-powered quantum magnetometer with a suite of reference sensors to train a machine learning algorithm, which compensates for magnetic field interference. The solution is designed to provide more accurate measurements of the WMM, with increased frequency than existing spaceborne applications. Furthermore, pre-test analysis indicates that the SBQuantum magnetometer will potentially provide stable and accurate readings for the WMM in excess of 10-times longer than today’s sensors.

“The MagQuest challenge is a prime example of how satellite technology plays a crucial role in powering technology and systems that each and every one of us use on a near-daily basis,” said Chuck Cash, vice president of federal sales at Spire. “We’re proud to leverage Spire’s expertise in satellite technology and existing infrastructure for manufacturing, ground stations, and data processing with SBQuantum’s magnetometer technology to provide a novel and more accurate solution to collect geomagnetic data.”

SBQuantum’s diamond magnetometer leverages quantum properties to reduce drifts such as those induced by temperature constraints which can distort readings from today’s classical technologies. The diamond crystal contains four sensing axes in a very small volume at the atomic scale, and the amplitude and direction of its magnetic field measurements provides high accuracy with no blind spots. The device’s use of quantum effects also provides a greater accuracy than existing technologies. By applying a green laser and microwaves to the diamond, a red glow is generated which translates directly to the magnetic field vector measurements at the basis of the WMM.

The final phase of the MagQuest Challenge runs from September 2023, with a launch of all the finalists’ solutions into space for testing purposes, planned for mid-2025.

Source: SBQuantum

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The post SBQuantum and Spire to participate in MagQuest final phase appeared first on Intelligence Community News.