[SPA] SPA SECTION NEWSLETTER, Volume XXVII, Issue 74

[Newsletter Editor]

AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION
SPA SECTION NEWSLETTER
Volume XXVII, Issue 74
Dec.06,2020

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Table of Contents

1. A Tribute to Günter Musmann

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A Tribute to Günter Musmann

From: Karl-Heinz Glassmeier, Fritz M. Neubauer, Bruce T. Tsurutani (kh.glassmeier at tu-bs.de)

Dr. Günter Musmann, a pioneer in space magnetometry, died in Salzgitter, Germany on 18 November, 2020 at the age of 82 after a longer battle with cancer. His numerous magnetometer instruments flew on a wide range of rocket and satellite missions.  

Günter was born in Salzgitter, close to Braunschweig, on 21 January 1938. He received a Diploma in Physics from TU Braunschweig in 1964, based on experimental work on the geoelectric method. From 1964 – 1968, he worked on his PhD at the Institute of Geophysics and extraterrestrial Physics (IGeP) and graduated in 1968 with a study on a fluxgate magnetometer system design for spacecraft and rocket flights. Since then Günter worked as a tenured Senior Scientist at IGeP.

The first German space satellite AZUR, launched in 1969, was equipped with a fluxgate magnetometer, supervised by Günter. This was the starting point for some of IGeP’s numerous participations in various space missions: the Helios solar probes should be mentioned in particular. It was obvious to Günter that magnetic cleanliness was needed for the Helios DC and search coil magnetometers. Thus, magnetic test facilities were installed and heavily used at the Institute in Braunschweig and on an industrial scale at IABG in Ottobrunn, Germany.

After that was the Giotto mission, which carried one of Mario Acuna’s magnetometers. Günter assembled and tested the final instrument including a digital processor and was in charge of the ambitious magnetic cleanliness program. Follow up missions were the Tethered Satellite TSS-1R and Deep-Space 1 missions.  Günter was also heavily involved in the CLUSTER mission and the Cassini mission with the fluxgate magnetometer provided by Imperial College, the vector Helium magnetometer by JPL and a digital processor by TU Braunschweig. Last but not least his pivotal involvement in the Rosetta orbiter magnetometer experiment, developed at TU Braunschweig, needs to be mentioned. Günter Musmann made ground-breaking contributions, considered as one of the world's leading experts in the development and operation of fluxgate magnetometers. 

On January 31, 2003, Günter Musmann retired. For decades he played a key role in shaping the fate of his Institute, was one of the driving forces and a teacher and advisor to many students. With Dr. Günter Musmann’s passing, we have lost one of the pioneers of space research by in-situ instrumentation!


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