Hēki is set to undergo final tests at Voyager Space’s facilities. If all goes to plan, it will fly to space later this summer. When operating, it will generate a magnetic field of up to 0.5 T.
As Hēki is so powerful, the scientists have to be careful it won’t damage instruments on the ISS, Pollock told IEEE Spectrum. “It took a lot of design work to meet the very stringent stray magnetic field requirements of the ISS,” he concluded.