The Chinese Mars ROVER Fluxgate Magnetometers

The Mars Rover Magnetometers (RoMAG) will implement the first mobile magnetic field measurements on the surface of Mars. Two identical tri-axial fluxgate magnetometer sensors are mounted at the top and bottom of the mast of rover, respectively. The technology of Helmholtz compensation coil probe and digital closed-loop feedback circuit is utilized to realize high precision measurement. Each magnetometer measures the vector magnetic field with a resolution of 0.01 nT in the range of ±65000 nT . The sample rate is up to 32 Hz and the noise is 0.01 nT/√Hz @1 Hz. A rover magnetic compensation procedure was conducted to remove the most important magnetic disturbances. Mobile magnetic field measurements on the Martian surface would obtain fine-scale crust field and provide information about its remnant magnetization and any possible intrinsic magnetic field. It would help us to further understand Martian internal structure, coupling processes of solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere.