Photo Story: Imperial Instrument Installed on a Solar-Wind-Studying Spacecraft

Oct. 1, 2024

By Hayley Dunning

Join our researchers as they install their instrument on NASA’s IMAP spacecraft, set to launch next year on a mission to study the A stream of charged particles, mostly protons and electrons, that escapes into the Sun's outer atmosphere at high speeds and streams out into the solar system in all directions..

The Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) spacecraft will observe and map the Sun’s The bubble-like region surrounding the solar system inflated by the solar wind, shielding the solar system from interstellar radiation. – the volume of space filled with particles streaming out from the Sun, known as the solar wind – and study how it interacts with the local The area of galaxy surrounding a solar system which contains nearby stars and the local interstellar medium (ISM). beyond, known as the interstellar medium. 

Imperial physicists have built a magnetometer (MAG) instrument for the mission, which will measure the interplanetary Magnetism is one of the basic forces of the universe. A magnetic field is a region of magnetism, which is caused by either moving electric charges or magnetic materials. around the spacecraft. From these measurements, The Magnetometer (MAG) instrument measures the strength and direction of the magnetic field in interplanetary space as the field is carried past the IMAP spacecraft by the solar wind. It consists of two fluxgate magnetometers installed on a boom arm that will deploy post-launch, extending the instruments away from the spacecraft to minimize magnetic interference of spacecraft and instrument electrical systems. will identify interplanetary shocks and measure the waves and turbulence that scatter particles in the solar wind.

The UK Space Agency has supported the UK development of the IMAP mission with £4.2 million, including funding for the MAG instrument.

IMAP is now being assembled at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab (APL) in Maryland, USA, before launch in summer 2025. MAG’s Principal Investigator, Professor Tim Horbury, and Instrument Manager, Helen O’Brien, went out to APL in August to help MAG get installed on the spacecraft.

Here, Professor Horbury talks us through some of the photos and videos that captured the excitement of seeing their instrument get into its final position – ready for space.

“It feels very real when you’re in a room with it. The sensors were mounted on a boom – a long arm that will keep them away from the spacecraft when it’s in space, but for now is folded onto the main craft. So the sensors are mounted and we’ve plugged them in, along with the electronics box, so everything is in its ‘final flight configuration’. We won’t unplug it again.” - Professor Tim Horbury

Tim Horbury and Helen O’Brien are dressed in white cleanroom suits and are standing in front of the IMAP spacecraft in a cleanroom environment. The IMAP spacecraft is suspended on its side with the protected solar arrays facing toward the viewer. The MAG boom arm is folded between the solar arrays. The MAG instrument bells wrapped in silver protective blankets can be seen pointing outwards at the closer end of the boom, extending just past the solar arrays behind the two people.

Tim (left) and Helen (right) in the assembly clean room with the spacecraft.

Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins/Princeton/Ed Whitman

“In our South Kensington lab, the sensors were always in special ‘cans’ when switched on, to shield them from the Earth’s magnetic field. Now, whenever they are switched on – which will be at various times in the next few months – they will measure the Earth’s and the spacecraft’s magnetic fields.”

A long metal table is in the foreground with a flat grey metal frame on top. Fastened to the frame is the long black pole (MAG boom arm) with two silver cylinders attached at the right-side end. Two people in white cleanroom suits stand behind the table observing the apparatus. The IMAP spacecraft on a stand is visible in the background. Other cleanroom equipment is found at the sides of the image.

The The A device used to measure the intensity and direction of the local magnetic field. (MAG) instrument measures the strength and direction of the magnetic field in The area of space found surrounding and between planets of a star system. as the field is carried past the IMAP spacecraft by the solar wind. It consists of two fluxgate magnetometers installed on a boom arm that will deploy post-launch, extending the instruments away from the spacecraft to minimize Any spacecraft generates a magnetic field, and that magnetic field changes with time. This field combines with (interferes with) the interplanetary magnetic field that a magnetometer is trying to observe. Luckily the spacecraft magnetic field gets smaller as you get farther from the main spacecraft. Putting a magnetometer out on a boom reduces the interference and so the magnetometer can get a more accurate measurement of the interplanetary magnetic field. of spacecraft and instrument electrical systems. instrument consists of two sensors, seen as the silver metallic cylinders on the black boom observed by Helen and Hunter McNamara of APL.

Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Princeton/Ed Whitman

“Many of these times will be when the spacecraft goes through several rigorous tests to check everything will survive launch and the space environment, including thermal, vibration, electromagnetic and acoustic shocks.”

A side-view of the IMAP spacecraft suspended on its side with sides wrapped in black MLI blanketing. Center: The boom arm is shown in its deployed position extending out to the right side of the image. Support cables are attached from the boom arm to the ceiling. The cylinder-shaped MAG sensors face outward at the far end of the boom, wrapped in silver protective blanketing. Two engineers in white cleanroom suits appear along with large red tool cabinets.

The A device used to measure the intensity and direction of the local magnetic field. (The Magnetometer (MAG) instrument measures the strength and direction of the magnetic field in interplanetary space as the field is carried past the IMAP spacecraft by the solar wind. It consists of two fluxgate magnetometers installed on a boom arm that will deploy post-launch, extending the instruments away from the spacecraft to minimize magnetic interference of spacecraft and instrument electrical systems.) boom shown in the deployed position.

Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins/Princeton/Ed Whitman

“We also tested the boom deployment. To simulate the lack of gravity, the spacecraft was turned on its side and the boom suspended by ropes. It was then ‘led’ out by an engineer. The moment the boom is released, there is a loud ‘pop’ that’s a little disconcerting, but everything worked as it should.”

[This video has no sound] Video Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins/Princeton/Lee Hobson

“We also saw the spacecraft spin many times. In space, this is necessary to keep it stable and to ensure the particle sensors onboard get a full view of the sky. It also helps to calibrate the MAG sensors.”

[This video has no sound] Video Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins/Princeton

“Before the boom is deployed, one of the MAG sensors will sit among the solar panels. As these will constantly face the Sun when out in space, the sensor could get extremely hot in its first few days.

“Ideally, we want to turn the sensors on to measure the magnetic field before and after the boom unfolds, to compare them, but if they’re too hot we can’t risk it. Once the spacecraft launches from Cape Canaveral in Florida, we’re going straight to an operations centre in Colorado to measure the temperatures and make that decision.”

John Schellhase is shown in a white cleanroom suit in front of the protected IMAP spacecraft solar array on the left side of the image. His right hand holds the released end of the MAG boom arm and is in the process of walking it into its extended deployed position. A red cable is attached to the released end and the rest of it is coiled in John’s hand.  A support cable is attached to the boom and connected to the ceiling.

John Schellhase performs a walk-out of the A device used to measure the intensity and direction of the local magnetic field. (The Magnetometer (MAG) instrument measures the strength and direction of the magnetic field in interplanetary space as the field is carried past the IMAP spacecraft by the solar wind. It consists of two fluxgate magnetometers installed on a boom arm that will deploy post-launch, extending the instruments away from the spacecraft to minimize magnetic interference of spacecraft and instrument electrical systems.) boom on the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. 

Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins/Princeton/Ed Whitman

“The team at APL have been outstanding. It’s an extraordinary operation, a complete juggling act, but they do it while allowing for setbacks that mean the overall project runs very smoothly.”

Helen O’Brien and John Schellhase are dressed in white cleanroom suits inspecting the MAG sensors mounted on the MAG boom secured in its launch position between the solar arrays. The inner corners of the protected solar arrays appear on the left side of the image with the MAG boom arm between them wrapped in silver blanketing.

Helen and John Schellhase of APL inspect the A device used to measure the intensity and direction of the local magnetic field. sensors mounted on the The Magnetometer (MAG) instrument measures the strength and direction of the magnetic field in interplanetary space as the field is carried past the IMAP spacecraft by the solar wind. It consists of two fluxgate magnetometers installed on a boom arm that will deploy post-launch, extending the instruments away from the spacecraft to minimize magnetic interference of spacecraft and instrument electrical systems. boom prior to a deployment test.

Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins/Princeton/Ed Whitman

Learn more on the Imperial website.


Princeton University professor David J. McComas leads the IMAP mission with an international team of 25 partner institutions. The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland builds the spacecraft and operates the mission. IMAP is the fifth mission in NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Probes (STP) program portfolio. The Explorers and The study of the Sun and its connection to the solar system, including the physical processes that occur in the space environment. Project Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the STP Program for the agency’s Heliophysics Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.