Magnetic shielding in spacecraft is a mission‐critical issue that must be addressed in a timely and effective manner. The high permeability of Fe–Ni–Mo alloys, makes them excellent candidates for magnetic shielding. This article explores a new and innovative approach, enabled by additive manufacturing (AM), to design, build, and test geometrically complex magnetic shields. A Fe–79.7Ni–4.1Mo alloy is additively manufactured using blown powder laser‐directed energy deposition (DED). AM build conditions are explored in the production of magnetic test rings and magnetic shield prototypes. Magnetic hysteresis test data are obtained, allowing for the determination of magnetic permeability, saturation, and coercivity. Detailed microstructural characterization is carried out. Three different prototype shield designs are printed and magnetic shield attenuation data is obtained. The magnetic field attenuation (shield effectiveness) obtained for the AM components is comparable to wrought equivalents. The values reported here for the magnetic permeability are the highest, and that for the magnetic coercivity the lowest, for any blown powder DED‐printed material currently known. The magnetic behavior is discussed with regard to grain size and orientation, as well as grain boundary effects, with all of these attributes contributing to the ultimate performance.
The goal of NASA’s Europa Clipper Mission is to investigate the habitability of the subsurface ocean within the Jovian moon Europa using a suite of ten investigations. The Europa Clipper Magnetometer (ECM) and Plasma Instrument for Magnetic Sounding (PIMS) investigations will be used in unison to characterize the thickness and electrical conductivity of Europa’s subsurface ocean and the thickness of the ice shell by sensing the induced magnetic field, driven by the strong time-varying magnetic field of the Jovian environment. However, these measurements will be obscured by the magnetic field originating from the Europa Clipper spacecraft. In this work, a magnetic field model of the Europa Clipper spacecraft is presented, characterized with over 260 individual magnetic sources comprising various ferromagnetic and soft-magnetic materials, compensation magnets, solenoids, and dynamic electrical currents flowing within the spacecraft. This model is used to evaluate the magnetic field at arbitrary points around the spacecraft, notably at the locations of the three fluxgate magnetometer sensors and four Faraday cups which make up ECM and PIMS, respectively. The model is also used to evaluate the magnetic field uncertainty at these locations via a Monte Carlo approach. Furthermore, both linear and non-linear gradiometry fitting methods are presented to demonstrate the ability to reliably disentangle the spacecraft field from the ambient using an array of three fluxgate magnetometer sensors mounted along an 8.5-meter (m) long boom. The method is also shown to be useful for optimizing the locations of the magnetometer sensors along the boom. Finally, we illustrate how the model can be used to visualize the magnetic field lines of the spacecraft, thus providing very insightful information for each investigation.
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