Ulysses
Sign in to saveAlso known as International Solar Polar Mission, ISPM, Ulysses spacecraft, Ulysses orbiter, Odysseus, Ulysses Heliospheric Mission
NASA robotic space probe that studied the Sun
Key facts
- Names
- Odysseus
- Mission type
- High-inclination solar orbiter
- Operator
- NASA / ESA
- Cospar id
- 1990-090B
- Website
- NASA Page , ESA Page
- Mission duration
- 18 years, 8 months, 24 days
- Manufacturer
- Astrium GmbH, Friedrichshafen , (formerly Dornier Systems )
- Launch mass
- 371 kg (818 lb)
- Payload mass
- 55 kg (121 lb)
- Dimensions
- 3.2 m × 3.3 m × 2.1 m (10.5 ft × 10.8 ft × 6.9 ft)
- Power
- 285 watts
- Launch date
- 6 October 1990, 11:47:16 UTC
- Rocket
- Space Shuttle Discovery ( STS-41 ) with Inertial Upper Stage and PAM-S
- Launch site
- Kennedy Space Center , LC-39B
- Contractor
- NASA
- Disposal
- Decommissioned
- Deactivated
- 30 June 2009
- Reference system
- Heliocentric orbit
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Mass
- 371
- Orbital period
- 2264.26
- Official website
- www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Ulysses_overview
- Image
- Ulysses at Jupiter H1.jpg
Show 9 more facts
- Commons category
- Ulysses (spacecraft)
- UTC date of spacecraft launch
- 1990-10-06
- native label
- Ulysses
- service retirement
- 2009-06-30
- periapsis
- 1.35
- apoapsis
- 5.40
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.60262
- orbital inclination
- 79.110
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.37
Sources (10)
via Wikidata · CC0
~24 min read
Article
Ulysses (/juːˈlɪsiːz/ yoo-LISS-eez, UK also /ˈjuːlɪsiːz/ YOO-liss-eez) was a robotic space probe whose primary mission was to orbit the Sun and study it at all latitudes. It was launched in 1990 and made three "fast latitude scans" of the Sun in 1994/1995, 2000/2001, and 2007/2008. In addition, the probe studied several comets. Ulysses was a joint venture of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), under leadership of ESA with participation from Canada's National Research Council. The last day for mission operations on Ulysses was 30 June 2009.
To study the Sun at all latitudes, the probe needed to change its orbital inclination and leave the plane of the Solar System. To change the orbital inclination of a spacecraft to about 80° requires a large change in heliocentric velocity, the energy to achieve which far exceeded the capabilities of any launch vehicle. To reach the desired orbit around the Sun, the mission's planners chose a gravity assist maneuver around Jupiter, but this Jupiter encounter meant that Ulysses could not be powered by solar cells. The probe was powered instead by a General-Purpose Heat Source Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (GPHS-RTG).