A compact atomic magnetometer for cubesats

By shining a precisely tuned laser through an atomic vapor, we can determine local mag- netic field strength in scalar form and in a way that is not affected by temperature changes. This technology has been used in space many times before on missions flown by NASA and ESA, such as SWARM, Øersted, and CHAMP to calibrate accompanying vector mag- netometers which are subject to offsets caused by temperature changes. The device we constructed is a small, low-cost application of this scientific principle and opens up new areas of scientific possibility for cubesats and the ability to define geomagnetic field struc- tures on a small (