Texas-based Southwest Research Institute has received a six-year-and-three-month, $12.8M contract from NASA to design and build a magnetometer that will support the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Follow-On Lagrange 1 mission.
The instrument will feature two three-axis magnetometers and related electronic components that will work to gauge interplanetary magnetic fields, NASA said Wednesday.
Contract work will cover the fabrication, integration, test, analysis, assessment and calibration of the tool. SwRI will also maintain and sustain the instrument’s ground support equipment and support the mission operation center.
The SWFO-L1 satellite will gather upstream solar wind data and coronal imagery to assist NOAA in forecasting and monitoring space weather activities.
The satellite will take off in 2024 through NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe.
NASA will serve as the flight system acquisition agent for the project, while NOAA will oversee the entire initiative.
