van Allen Magnetorquer Designer

Magnetorquer sizing and ADCS simulation for CubeSats, from CAD model to design report.

van Allen Magnetorquer Designer is a desktop engineering tool for the preliminary design of CubeSat magnetorquers. It brings spacecraft modelling, magnetorquer sizing, 3-D attitude simulation, trade studies, requirements compliance and reporting into one workflow. Change an input and every result updates with it, so your design stays consistent from the first estimate to the design review.

Key features

• Spacecraft model: start from a parametric 1U–12U CubeSat or import your own CAD model (STEP, IGES, STL, OBJ and more). Mass, centre of mass and the full inertia tensor are computed automatically, and every value stays editable.

• Missions and orbits: choose a mission profile and an orbit regime (LEO, SSO, MEO, GEO or HEO), or import your own orbit from a TLE, JSON or CSV file.

• One-click recommendation: get the required dipole and the matching hardware, whether air-core coils, torque rods or a hybrid, within your power, voltage, mass and size limits.

• 3-D simulation: check B-dot detumbling and 90° slews along the real orbit, using a tilted-dipole geomagnetic field and the full inertia tensor. You get a ground track, a field map and time histories.

• Trade studies: run parameter sweeps, sensitivity analysis and an optimiser to explore the design space.

• Requirements compliance: a requirements table checks your design against a phase-based margin policy, marking each requirement PASS, MARGIN, FAIL or TBC.

• Design reports: export review-ready reports in PDF, Word, LaTeX or HTML, with your company title, document number, author and version.

• Engineering workflow: project files, undo and redo, revision history, a component catalogue, GMAT and Basilisk export, and an acceptance test procedure generator.

Who it's for

• ADCS and GNC engineers sizing actuators for new missions

• Systems engineers preparing feasibility studies and design reviews

• University CubeSat teams and space-engineering courses

Licensing and updates

• Licensing: monthly subscription, activated with a licence key.

• Offline use: works offline for up to 14 days between online checks.

• Updates: included in the subscription and delivered automatically inside the program.

System requirements

• Operating system: Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit)

https://minervadynamics.net/en/home#software