Intercosmos 24 & Magion 2

Magion 2 was manufactured as the subsatellite of the ACTIVE (Intercosmos 24) spacecraft and as the first subsatellite of a series of international scientific projects ACTIVE, APEX, INTERBALL. As opposed to Magion 1 this spacecraft series with weight up to 65 kg had the form of a simmetrical polyhedron, had a set of folding booms for sensors, has digital system of data collection and had a gasjet propulsion engine. The scientific goal of the subsatellite of the ACTIVE project was to investigate space structure of physical phenomena which accompany plasma injection and to investigate powerful ULF emission into the magnetosphere as in a near (up to 10 km) zone, as well as in middle and far zones of the main spacecraft on which active injecting devices were mounted.

The Active mission, also called Interkosmos 24, consisting of the Soviet Active spacecraft and the closely orbiting Czech subsatellite Magion 2, had the main objectives of better understanding of the radiation properties of loop antennas in a plasma environment, spatial structure of E-M fields in the near zone, non-linear effects in the near zone, propagation and non-linear effects of whistler modes, triggered particle precipitation and triggered waves, and detection of ground-based VLF transmissions. The main objectives of the mission remained unrealized because of the mis-deployed VLF loop antenna; the radiated power was estimated to be no more than about 50 W. The operation schedules of the Active mission were coordinated with the many NASA (and other)-sponsored investigations of the magnetosphere.