Ulysses

[alokmohan]

SA's Science Programme Committee has unanimously approved to continue the operations of the highly successful Ulysses spacecraft until March 2009. This latest extension, for a period of 12 months, is the fourth in the history of the joint NASA/ESA mission.<br /><br />In addition to pursuing its long-term goal of exploring the heliosphere in four dimensions (3 spatial dimensions and time), Ulysses is a key member of the Heliospheric Network, the international fleet of spacecraft presently operating at many different locations in the heliosphere and beyond.<br /><br />Ulysses' joint measurements with the twin STEREO satellites, launched in October 2006, are high on the list of priorities for the coming months. <br /> <br /> <br />This diagram shows Ulysses' third solar orbit. ESA [larger image] <br />"This new lease of life is great news for the international heliophysics community," said Richard Marsden, ESA's mission manager and project scientist for Ulysses. "No other spacecraft can provide the out-of-ecliptic measurements made by Ulysses. The Sun's activity will soon pick up again, and there are plenty of unsolved questions to tackle."<br /><br />Among these unsolved questions is an apparent asymmetry in the temperature of the Sun's polar coronal holes, which appears to be related to the magnetic polarity. This was discovered during the first high-latitude passes in 1994 and 1995, when the magnetically positive northern polar coronal hole was found to be cooler than the southern pole. Data acquired during the coming months will hopefully shed new light on this puzzle.<br /><br />For a satellite in its 18th year in space, Ulysses is in remarkably good health. Nevertheless, in order to compensate for the steadily diminishing power output of the on-board radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG), the spacecraft operations team has had to devise a new operational strategy that will allow the majority of the scientific instruments to operate throughout the period covered by the

 

[nimbus]

'll have to wait and see." <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[3488]

Thanks alokmohan,<br /><br />It is good news, as thge more equipment observinig the Sun, the better.<br /><br />Ulysses was launched on Mission STS 41 Discovery way back on Saturday 6th October 1990, just<br />over 17 years ago & is one of only three interplanetary craft ever launched by the Space Shuttle<br />(Galileo & Magellan being the others).<br /><br />On Firday 30th November 2007, Ulysses will commence the third Solar North Polar Pass.<br /><br />STS 41 mission logo.<br /><br />Discovery launches with Ulysses aboard.<br /><br />Ulysses in cargo bay of Discovery.<br /><br />Ulysses with IUS above Earth in Earth orbit.<br /><br />Ulysses after release from Discovery,<font color="yellow"> beginning the the trip to Jupiter, required to place Ulysses on a polar <br />Heliocentric orbit</font><br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>