Tiny Satellites, Global Impact

Tiny Satellites, Global Impact: NGA-led MagQuest Challenge to Secure Future of Navigation

"The goal of MagQuest was to look beyond current methods and spark new, advanced solutions for collecting this data, ensuring its accuracy for decades to come," said Mike Paniccia, NGA's program manager for MagQuest. "By maintaining the integrity of this foundational dataset, we are safeguarding a global capability that ensures our nation and its partners can operate with confidence anywhere on Earth."

A rocket carrying three microwave-sized satellites, known as CubeSats, developed by MagQuest competitors from industry and academia, will soon launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. These CubeSats will collect high-quality magnetic data that NGA, in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, will evaluate for use in updating the World Magnetic Model.

The WMM is the global navigational backbone, supporting a wide array of applications from military operations and commercial aviation to the everyday use of navigation on mobile devices. Since Earth's magnetic field is dynamic, it is critical the the model be updated to ensure accuracy for precision navigation, timing and targeting.

NGA, NOAA and the United Kingdom's Defence Geographic Centre helm the WMM mission, with models updated every five years. The data from these CubeSats will provide the operational capacity to support production of the WMM 2030 and beyond.

NGA initiated the MagQuest Challenge in 2019, inspiring innovators from small businesses, academic institutions, established industry and startups to apply their ideas toward creating more efficient, reliable and sustainable data collection solutions. The teams have worked with NGA and experts at NOAA and NASA to build, test and now launch their CubeSats into low-Earth orbit.

While this launch marks the culmination of the MagQuest Challenge, it signifies the beginning of a new era for magnetic data collection and finding innovative ways to solve complex problems.

Through this competition, NGA has pioneered a model for working together across government and the defense industrial base to find creative solutions for collecting vital data about the Earth in support of military and commercial uses around the world.