| |
 |
|
|
Science Forum Index » Astro Forum » NASA-European Spacecraft Swoops Under Sun's Pole (Ulysses)
Page 1 of 1
|
| Author |
Message |
| Guest |
 Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 7:39 pm |
|
|
|
|
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2007-012
Media contact: DC Agle 818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
2007-012
NASA-European Spacecraft Swoops Under Sun's Pole
February 07, 2007
The 16-year-old Ulysses spacecraft reaches what could be considered a
low point in its mission observing the sun today - and solar
scientists
could not be happier. The European-manufactured, joint NASA- and
ESA-managed spacecraft, has reached maximum latitude in its
exploration
of the heliosphere, the bubble in space blown out by the solar wind.
"At max latitude we are actually passing below the sun looking almost
directly up at its south pole from 329 million kilometers (204 million
miles) away," said Nigel Angold, Ulysses mission operations manager
from
the European Space Agency. "The trajectory provides a perspective of
the
sun no other spacecraft can equal."
This unusual perspective is courtesy of the spacecraft's one-of-its-
kind
6.3-year-long orbit around the sun. An orbit that swings Ulysses both
over and under the sun's polar regions and as far out as the orbit of
Jupiter.
"Max latitude is the start of an important mission phase," said Dr. Ed
Smith, Ulysses project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif. "The spacecraft will soon begin accelerating as it
transits from below the sun's south pole to its equator and then up
and
over its north pole. This trajectory provides us a ringside seat to
all
the solar processes we want to observe."
This phase of the mission is expected to return high priority
scientific
observations revealing the changing sun and its effect on space during
the ongoing minimum in the 11-year sunspot cycle. During this portion
of
the mission, Ulysses will rapidly scan the sun's magnetic field, solar
plasmas, solar radio noise, energetic particles, galactic cosmic rays
and cosmic dust between the poles and the equator imparting a more
complete perspective of the sun's atmosphere.
Understanding the Earth's nearest star and its processes is paramount,
as the space weather created by the sun has a huge effect on the third
rock from it and its inhabitants. The sun's gaseous outer atmosphere
can
create huge space storms. This violent space weather, in turn, can
affect Earth's electrical grid, cell phone communications, the
functioning of satellites and the operation of astronauts in orbit.
This
passage between the sun's poles is the third in the 17 years of
Ulysses
operations. The first transit occurred during the previous sunspot
minimum in 1994 to 1995, and the second during sunspot maximum in 2000
to 2001. The opportunity to repeat the scientific investigations
during
the ongoing solar minimum is important because the suns magnetic field
has changed significantly since the previous minimum.
The Ulysses spacecraft was carried into Earth orbit in the cargo bay
of
the Space Shuttle Discovery on Oct. 6, 1990. From Earth orbit it was
propelled toward Jupiter by solid-fuel motors. Ulysses passed Jupiter
on
Feb. 8, 1992; the giant planet's gravity bent the spacecraft's flight
path downward and away from the ecliptic plane. This put it into a
final
orbit around the sun that would take it past the sun's north and south
poles.
The spacecraft was built by Dornier Systems of Germany for the
European
Space Agency. NASA provided the launch via space shuttle and the upper
stage boosters. The U.S. Department of Energy supplied a radioisotope
thermoelectric generator which powers the spacecraft; science
instruments were provided by both U.S. and European investigators. The
spacecraft is operated from JPL by a joint team from the European
Space
Agency and NASA.
More information about NASA's Ulysses mission is available on the Web
at
http://ulysses.jpl.nasa.gov . |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| |
|
Page 1 of 1
All times are GMT - 5 Hours
The time now is Wed Oct 15, 2008 11:58 pm
|
|