Ulysses is a space mission designed to explore the unknown region of space above the poles of the Sun. Launched by the Space Shuttle Discovery in October, 1990, Ulysses flew by Jupiter in February, 1992, where a gravity assist manoeuvre placed the spacecraft in a unique solar polar orbit, allowing it to fly over the south pole of the Sun in 1994 and over the north pole in 1995. With the first phase of its mission successfully completed, Ulysses has embarked on a second orbit of the Sun, which was completed in December, 2001. It is now embarked on a third orbit. Ulysses is a joint project of the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA.
The spacecraft is stabilised by rotation (period : 12 seconds, rotation axis always pointed towards the Earth).
The Ulysses scientific investigations encompass studies of the heliospheric magnetic field, heliospheric radio and plasma waves, the solar wind plasma including its minor heavy ion constituents, solar and interplanetary energetic particles, galactic cosmic rays and the anomalous cosmic ray component. Other investigations are directed towards studies of cosmic dust and interstellar neutral gas, as well as solar x-rays and cosmic gamma-ray bursts. Radio science experiments to probe the solar corona and to conduct a search for gravitational waves have also been carried out.
More detailed information can be obtained at LESIA Ulysses server (http://www.lesia.obspm.fr/URAP-sur-Ulysse.html) and Ulysses ESA Home Page (https://sci.esa.int/web/ulysses/).
Version:2.4.0
Ulysses is a space mission designed to explore the unknown region of space above the poles of the Sun. Launched by the Space Shuttle Discovery in October, 1990, Ulysses flew by Jupiter in February, 1992, where a gravity assist manoeuvre placed the spacecraft in a unique solar polar orbit, allowing it to fly over the south pole of the Sun in 1994 and over the north pole in 1995. With the first phase of its mission successfully completed, Ulysses has embarked on a second orbit of the Sun, which was completed in December, 2001. It is now embarked on a third orbit. Ulysses is a joint project of the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA.
The spacecraft is stabilised by rotation (period : 12 seconds, rotation axis always pointed towards the Earth).
The Ulysses scientific investigations encompass studies of the heliospheric magnetic field, heliospheric radio and plasma waves, the solar wind plasma including its minor heavy ion constituents, solar and interplanetary energetic particles, galactic cosmic rays and the anomalous cosmic ray component. Other investigations are directed towards studies of cosmic dust and interstellar neutral gas, as well as solar x-rays and cosmic gamma-ray bursts. Radio science experiments to probe the solar corona and to conduct a search for gravitational waves have also been carried out.
More detailed information can be obtained at LESIA Ulysses server (http://www.lesia.obspm.fr/URAP-sur-Ulysse.html) and Ulysses ESA Home Page (https://sci.esa.int/web/ulysses/).
| Role | Person | StartDate | StopDate | Note | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | ProjectScientist | spase://CNES/Person/CDPP-Archive/Edward.J.Smith | |||
| 2. | ProjectScientist | spase://CNES/Person/CDPP-Archive/Richard.G.Marsden |