
A Guide to Magnetorquers for Satellites - kartikkumar
https://blog.satsearch.co/2019-08-21-magnetorquers-an-overview-of-magnetic-torquer-products-available-on-the-global-marketplace-for-space.html
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kartikkumar
Hey folks, nice to see this article hit the frontpage. I'm one of the co-
founders at satsearch. We're working on building more content like this to
open up the space industry to more people.

After some initial feedback, we're already working to expanding this article.
We've also published articles on small satellite thrusters [1] and reaction
wheels [2]. We'll be publishing one on ground-station-as-a-service soon.

Would love your feedback/input on what you'd like to see next.

[1] [https://blog.satsearch.co/2019-07-10-cubesat-thrusters-an-
ov...](https://blog.satsearch.co/2019-07-10-cubesat-thrusters-an-overview-of-
in-space-propulsion-products-for-small-satellites.html)

[2] [https://blog.satsearch.co/2019-07-25-reaction-wheels-an-
over...](https://blog.satsearch.co/2019-07-25-reaction-wheels-an-overview-of-
attitude-control-systems-available-on-the-global-marketplace-for-space.html)

~~~
sjburt
I think an article like this would benefit by including the specs for each of
the coils, such as weight, winding material, number of turns, effective area,
resistance, and inductance, as well as covering the differences between air
cores and ferromagnetic cores. One of the biggest time sinks in selecting
components like these is getting suppliers to give you data sheets and
converting their specs into a comparable format.

~~~
kartikkumar
Thanks for the feedback!

That's exactly the direction we're heading towards :)

We've already noticed that suppliers are starting to open up their product
data because of the value we can bring to them through our website.

Our long-term plan is indeed to structure data sheets, so that you can
actually start comparing products without having to spend hours wading through
PDFs docs.

We've soft-launched our API [1], which we're using to build tools like our
Data Explorer [2], to help engineers navigate design choices much more easily.
Under the hood, we're working with suppliers to convert their data sheets to a
standardized format.

We'll work on trying to extend this article specifically with your feedback.

Thanks again!

[1] [https://api.satsearch.co](https://api.satsearch.co)

[2] [https://satsearch.co/explorer](https://satsearch.co/explorer)

------
penagwin
Really interesting wikipedia article on them too (the article borrows from it
a bit).

This is really amusing to me:

> The Michigan Exploration Laboratory (MXL) suspects that the M-Cubed CubeSat,
> a joint project run by MXL and JPL, became magnetically conjoined to
> Explorer-1 Prime, a second CubeSat released at the same time, via strong
> onboard magnets used for passive attitude control, after deploying on
> October 28, 2011.[5] This is the first non-destructive latching of two
> satellites.[6]

~~~
somesortofsystm
Honestly .. now I need to know about the first destructive latching of
satellites more than anything else on HN today ..

~~~
erigeron
Check out the Kosmos-2251/Iridium-33 collision.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_satellite_collision](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_satellite_collision)

~~~
kartikkumar
TS Kelso at AGI put out an interesting white paper with more details:
[https://www.agi.com/resources/white-papers/analysis-of-
the-i...](https://www.agi.com/resources/white-papers/analysis-of-the-
iridium-33-cosmos-2251-collision)

Kelso is also the brains behind CelesTrak for debris tracking:
[https://www.celestrak.com](https://www.celestrak.com)

There are also a number of videos on YouTube of the collision profile, made
using AGI's Systems Toolkit:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oRC9dHKI9Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oRC9dHKI9Y)

