****** WARNING - VOLUME 1.0 - THIS VOLUME HAS BEEN SUPERCEDED ****** CCSD3ZF0000100000001NJPL3IF0PDSX00000001 PDS_VERSION_ID = PDS3 OBJECT = MISSION MISSION_NAME = "ULYSSES" OBJECT = MISSION_INFORMATION MISSION_START_DATE = 1990-10-06 MISSION_STOP_DATE = UNK MISSION_ALIAS_NAME = "N/A" MISSION_DESC = " Mission Overview ---------------- The Ulysses spacecraft was put into orbit on 06 October 1990 by the Space Shuttle 'Discovery'. Ulysses used a US Air Force inertial upper stage (IUS) and a PAM-S booster to install the spacecraft in a Jupiter bound trajectory. Upon reaching Jupiter, Ulysses used the decomposition thrusters to align its trajectory so that as it passed by Jupiter, it was deflected into an orbit that was nearly perpendicular to the ecliptic plane. This orbit was designed to carry Ulysses below the Sun's southern pole, then above the Sun's northern pole. The Ulysses mission is a joint undertaking by NASA and the European Space Agency. ESA provides the spacecraft and is responsible for its operation, while NASA provides the spacecraft power supply, the launch vehicles, the Mission Operations Center at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and tracking via the Deep Space Network [WENZELETAL1992]. Mission Timeline ---------------- 1990-10-06 Launch. Spacecraft equilibrium phase begins as instruments are brought online and allowed to outgas. 1990-10-27 End of equilibrium phase. 1990-12-31 First opposition (alignment with Earth and Ulysses on the same side of the Sun). 1991-08-21 First superior conjunction (alignment with Earth, but Ulysses on opposite side of Sun). 1992-02-08 12:01 UT Closest approach to Jupiter at a distance of 446,552 kilometers from the planet's center. 1992-02-27 Second opposition. 1994-06-26 Began passing over the southern polar region of the Sun, becoming the first spacecraft ever to explore that region of space (the north and south polar regions of the Sun are theoretically defined as the regions more than 70 degrees from the Sun's equator). 1994-09-13 Reached its highest latitude of 80.2 degrees south of the Sun's equator. 1994-11-05 Traverse of the south polar region completed. 1995-03-11 11:40 UT Closest approach to Sun near solar equator. Distance less than 200 million km. 1995-06-19 13:00 UT Begins exploration of north polar region. 1995-07-31 Reaches maximum latitude of 80.2 degrees north of the Sun's equator. 1995-09-29 Northern polar pass completed, beginning journey back out to the orbit of Jupiter. End of nominal mission. 1998-04-17 Jupiter's distance of 5.4 astronomical units to be reached. 2000-04 Returns to vicinity of Sun. " MISSION_OBJECTIVES_SUMMARY =" 'The primary scientific aim of the Ulysses mission is to gain definitive knowledge, by means of in-situ observations, of conditions and processes occuring in the inner heliosphere in three dimensions. The investigations carried out on board the Ulysses spacecraft address problems encompassing the heliospheric magnetic field, the properties of the solar wind, the structure of the Sun/Wind interface and solar radio bursts and plasma waves, the origin, composition and propogation of solar energetic particles and galactic cosmic rays, solar X-ray emission, and the properties of interstellar neutral gas and dust in the heliosphere, all as a function of solar latitude. Specific objectives of the Ulysses scientific investigations are: - to assess the global three-dimensional properties of the interplanetary magnetic field and the solar wind - to study the origin of the solar wind by sampling plasma conditions that are expected to be different from those available near the ecliptic - to increase our knowledge of waves, shocks and other discontinuities in the solar wind by sampling plasma conditions that are expected to be different from those available near the ecliptic - to study the acceleration of energetic particles in solar flares by observing the X-ray and particle emissions from active solar regions - to improve our understanding of galactic cosmic rays by sampling those particles over the solar poles, where low-energy cosmic rays may have easier access to the inner solar system than near the ecliptic plane - to advance our knowledge of the neutral component of interstellar gas that enters the heliosphere by measuring its properties as a function of heliographic latitude - to improve our understanding of interplanetary dust by measuring its properties as a function of heliographic latitude. Secondary objectives of the mission include interplanetary physics investigations during the in-ecliptic Earth/Jupiter phase and measurements in the Jovian magnetosphere during the Jupiter flyby phase, the search for signals arriving at Ulysses from distant sources in the galaxy, the search for gamma ray burst sources and, in conjunction with observations from other spacecraft, contribute to their identifications with known celestial objects. An additional objective is to search for low-frequency gravitational waves by using the spacecraft's radio communication link.' [WENZELETAL1992]" END_OBJECT = MISSION_INFORMATION OBJECT = MISSION_HOST INSTRUMENT_HOST_ID = "UL" OBJECT = MISSION_TARGET TARGET_NAME = "HELIOSPHERE" END_OBJECT = MISSION_TARGET OBJECT = MISSION_TARGET TARGET_NAME = "SOLAR WIND" END_OBJECT = MISSION_TARGET OBJECT = MISSION_TARGET TARGET_NAME = "INTERPLANETARY MAGNETIC FIELD" END_OBJECT = MISSION_TARGET OBJECT = MISSION_TARGET TARGET_NAME = "JOVIAN MAGNETOSPHERE" END_OBJECT = MISSION_TARGET OBJECT = MISSION_TARGET TARGET_NAME = "DUST" END_OBJECT = MISSION_TARGET END_OBJECT = MISSION_HOST OBJECT = MISSION_REFERENCE_INFORMATION REFERENCE_KEY_ID = "WENZELETAL1992" END_OBJECT = MISSION_REFERENCE_INFORMATION END_OBJECT = MISSION OBJECT = REFERENCE REFERENCE_KEY_ID = "WENZELETAL1992" REFERENCE_DESC = "Wenzel, K.-P., R.G. Marsden, D.E. Page, and E.J. Smith 1992. The Ulysses mission. Astron. Astroph. Suppl. Ser. 92, 207-219." END_OBJECT = REFERENCE END