Enhanced Magnetic Coil Facility for Magnetic Cleanliness, Characterization and Susceptibility

The experience done by Thales Alenia Space on magnetic cleanliness [1] and characterization during Rosetta and Bepi Colombo reveal some limitations on the measurement system used. For this reason, it was decided to design and manufacture a new MCF (Magnetic Cleanliness Facility), adequate to enlarge the capabilities to support testing of spacecraft with stringent magnetic requirements, to allow the repeatability of the measurement and the possibility to use user defined magnetic patterns. The main test activities supported by the new facility are: DC (Direct Current) and AC (Alternate Current) magnetic field measurements; Magnetic cleanliness on electronic equipments or mechanical parts of the S/C (Space/Craft);Magnetic field susceptibilty tests (DC or low freq. magnetic fields and AC fields). This paper aims to describe in details the design of this new facility, the validation activities performed and the first testing activities on going in TASInI TO (Thales Alenia Space in Italy Torino).