Performance Measure of the Novel Electropermanent Magnetorquer

This study presents the current development state of a novel magnetorquer planned to be flight-tested in late 2023 onboard the CUAVA-2 satellite. The new magnetorquer addresses the main drawbacks of conventional magnetorquer by employing soft magnetic material as the source of actuation and aims to eventually substitute the traditional designs based on a number of benefits. Previous work which covered the basic parametric study revealed that the new magnetorquer is capable of generating roughly 2 times stronger than the others with similar size and volume, however, the measurement was subject to the sensor location which couldn't be placed in an accurate position and therefore unable to conclude with confidence. To get an improved rational performance measure of the new device, we constructed a magnetic oscillator based on an air-bearing table together with a Helmholtz cage so that the magnetic properties of the magnetorquer can be derived thoroughly without the need of precise sensor positioning. As a result, we observed that the new magnetorquer is generating 5 to 6 times stronger magnetic dipole moment than the other conventional magnetorquers which can be found in the CubeSat market