SOUTHWEST SCIENCES INC — National Aeronautics and Space Administration SBIR Phase I: S1.06
SOUTHWEST SCIENCES INC — SBIR Phase I award from National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
- Amount
- $125,000
- Agency
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Program / Phase
- SBIR · Phase I
- Topic
- S1.06
- NAICS
- —
- Place of performance
- NM
- Period
- 2017-06-09 → 2017-12-08
Description
Sensitive magnetometers play a key role in exploring the near-Earth environment, other planets and moons. Measurements using a constellation of spacecraft can provide a rich data set, but this approach requires magnetometers that have stable calibration as well as low size, weight and power. This proposal will develop an all-optical atomic magnetometer whose calibration can be traced to quantum properties of the atoms. It has already demonstrated high sensitivity in the laboratory. The Phase I work will show that it can be flown on a CubeSat by demonstrating that the form factor, weight, and electrical power can be made compatible with requirements for microsatellites. In Phase II we plan to build a version that could fly on balloons or aircraft.