NGA to Advance NASA’s Ability to Measure Earth’s Magnetic Field – Launches Demonstration Phase of MagQuest Challenge

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) just launched the Demonstration Phase (Phase 4a) of its MagQuest Challenge to develop novel data collection approaches for the World Magnetic Model.

The WMM ultimately ensures the accuracy of navigation because it corrects for differences in magnetic forces at a user’s location. The model is used by thousands of systems for mobile navigation apps and is critical for military and commercial uses around the world.

Produced in 1905, the WMM originated with data collection from two ships surveying 500,000 miles of ocean. Today, the data is collected by satellites operated by the European Space Agency that will eventually reach the end of their useful life. NGA’s MagQuest Challenge is promoting the development of miniaturised solutions to determine if they can produce data useful to support WMM production.

NGA has an extensive network of government partners collaborating on the WMM production, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the British Geological Survey, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Defense, the United States Geological Survey, and the United States Naval Observatory among others.

As part of its core mission, NGA provides geospatial intelligence products and services to decision-makers, military service members, and first responders.

The MagQuest Demonstration Phase 4a will take place on HeroX, the social network for innovation and the world’s leading platform for crowdsourced solutions. Three winning teams from Phase 3 of MagQuest each proposed a different magnetometer design to measure the Earth’s magnetic field.

In this next phase, these teams will receive several million dollars in awards, including a $1.55M Incentive Prize Purse, to develop their proposed magnetometers. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center will conduct independent testing on each team’s prototype.

Following Phase 4a, successful teams will integrate their magnetometers into their satellites and launch their systems, acquire data and share their results with NGA.

“Our ultimate goal is for all three teams to successfully develop a magnetometer, each of which can be sent into orbit to determine viability for WMM production,” said Mike Paniccia, NGA’s program manager for the World Magnetic Model.

“We want to test as many innovative and groundbreaking magnetometers as possible to ensure that NGA has a robust set of data suppliers to support the future of the WMM. We intend to have a competitive procurement for a data-buy contract following MagQuest and hope that these three teams, in addition to others from the industry, will be able to supply comprehensive data sets to support the future of the WMM.”

“This MagQuest Challenge is a testament to the power of the crowd,” said Kal K. Sahota, CEO, HeroX. “We are pleased to be part of securing the future of geomagnetic data collection and consequently contributing to the resilience and continued crucial work of the WMM.”

For more information about the challenge, visit herox.com/MagQuest