Experimental characterization of additively manufactured rods for nanosatellites stabilization

In this paper, we present a comprehensive experimental characterization of a ferromagnetic material intended for use in passive magnetic attitude control systems (PMACS) for CubeSat-class nanosatellites, specifically in the form of hysteresis rods. The material must exhibit maximal magnetic hysteresis losses to efficiently dissipate rotational kinetic energy and stabilize the satellite’s attitude in the shortest possible time. A cylindrical geometry was chosen for the hysteresis rods, and finite element method (FEM) simulations were conducted to optimize the geometric parameters, identifying the rod radius that maximizes energy losses for a given height. The material investigated is a Fe-Si alloy with 3.7 wt% silicon, produced via additive manufacturing (AM) using the laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) technique. Magnetic characterization was carried out using a volt-amperometric setup on two toroidal samples—annealed and unannealed— and the magnetic measurements were carried out at different temperatures to determine the conditions yielding the highest losses taking into account the environmental settings. Finally, an analytical model was employed to estimate the time required for complete attitude in-orbit stabilization.