Magnetostatic Cleanliness of the Radioisotope Thermoelectric

Abstmcr. The Cassini spaceaaft , launched in October 1997 to reach Saturn in 2004, carries two magnetometer xperiments on a lo-meter boo”, one at the mid-section of the boom and the other at the end of the boom. In order to gather valid scientific magnetic field data and avoid electromagnetic nterference, the spacecraft had to comply with stringent magnetostatic cleanliness requirements. Amidst the strongest magnetic field perturbations were three Radioisotope Tbemwelectric Generators (RTGs), which provide power to the spacecratl’ s engineering subsystems and science instruments. The RTGs (Figure 1) have been compensated efficiently. This papa describes the field-mapping technique, the numerical modeling and the compensation approach used for the RTGs with the goal of minimizing its magnetic field interference with Cassini’ s DC magnetic field science instmments. A short synthesis of the total spacecraft cleanliness level is also @vat.