The European Space Agency (ESA) intends to establish a distributed detector network for monitoring space weather (Distributed Space weather Sensor System, D3S). The D3S-RadMag instrument, under development at MTA EK, might be a key instrument to D3S in the future.
The aim of the D3S-RadMag project is to develop a combined instrument for measuring space radiation and magnetic field properties for performing measurements in ESA’s small satellite constellation missions in the near future. Phase A/B of the development is funded in the frame of the ESA Hungarian Incentive Scheme.
A kind of Phase A/B Preliminary Design Review (PDR) of the D3S-RadMag project took place on the 12th of July 2019 at the MTA Centre for Energy Research (MTA EK). ESA was represented by space weather space segment coordinator Melanie Heil and project technical officer Marco Vuolo. Space weather space segment engineer Sergio Terzo joined the meeting via videoconference. Comments and questions raised by ESA experts were answered by representatives of the team developing the D3S-RadMag instrument. There were also further discussions on the continuation of the project.
The review was successful; the documentation delivered earlier shall be corrected and updated by the team within two weeks. Nevertheless, the experts had no comments requiring the suspension of the project.
D3S-RadMag PDR co-location meeting at MTA EK (from left to right: András Gerecs (MTA EK), Boglárka Erdős (MTA EK), Attila Hirn (MTA EK), Balázs Zábori (MTA EK), Melanie Heil (ESA), Marco Vuolo (ESA), István Apáthy (REMRED Kft.)) – credits: MTA EK
Project manager Balázs Zábori and ESA’s space weather space segment coordinator Melanie Heil – credits: MTA EK
D3S-RadMag PDR co-location meeting at MTA EK – credits: MTA EK
Attila Hirn
D3S-RadMag deputy project manager
Phase A/B of the development of the D3S-RadMag space radiation and magnetic field measuring instrument is realized in the frame of the ESA contract No. 4000124572/18/NL/CBi.