Naomi Cooper
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has selected three teams as winners of the demonstration phase of a prize competition seeking to develop technologies for the collection of geomagnetic data to update the World Magnetic Model.
Iota Technology, the University of Colorado Boulder and a Spire Global-SBQuantum partnership secured millions in funding to further develop their magnetometer technology offerings for deployment into orbit, where they will measure the Earth’s magnetic field, MagQuest Challenge host platform HeroX said Wednesday.
During Phase 4a, the winning teams demonstrated their novel geomagnetic data collection technologies at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
A team led by Iota Technology demonstrated a 3U CubeSat with a deployable boom and a 3D magnetometer array while Spire Global and SBQuantum showcased a magnetometer equipped with quantum-based sensors.
CU Boulder also tested the capability of its Compact Spaceborne Magnetic Observatory technology, which takes advantage of recent CubeSat and magnetometer innovations.
