|
|
| Ulysses Status Report - January 2009 |
Mission Status
On 14 January 2008, during the mission's third north polar pass, the spacecraft reached maximum northern latitude on its third solar orbit. Around the same time the X-band transmitter onboard the spacecraft failed after its power supply could not be switched on again following what was planned to be a temporary switch off. This unfortunately has left the mission with S-band-only communication. The temporary switch off of the X-band transmitter was part of a plan to manage the naturally decreasing amount of available power from the spacecraft's generator after, at that time, more than 17 years of operations. |
| Date: 02 Feb 2009 |
|
|
| Ulysses Communication Anomaly |
| Early on 15 January, at the start of a routine test in preparation for the next phase of the Ulysses mission, communication with the spacecraft via the onboard X-band transmitter was lost. As a result, the Spacecraft Operations Team declared a Spacecraft Emergency in order to obtain additional ground station coverage from NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN). |
| Date: 17 Jan 2008 |
|
|
| Ulysses Status Report - November 2007 |
| Mission Status
All instruments are currently switched on and functioning nominally. Nutation operations are proceeding as planned, using closed-loop Conscan and SOLACE manoeuvres (open-loop slews together with Conscan) to maintain Earth pointing and damp nutation. |
| Date: 08 Nov 2007 |
|
|
| Ulysses Status Report - May 2007 |
| Mission Status
The spacecraft has completed its third South Polar Pass in April, having reached maximum southern latitude (-79.7° heliographic) on 7 February. The spacecraft subsystems and science instruments remain in good health, with no anomalies during the reporting period. |
| Date: 22 May 2007 |
|
|
| Ulysses Status Report - November 2006 |
| Mission Status
On 6 October, Ulysses completed its 16th successful year in orbit. The spacecraft continues its climb to high southern latitudes with all subsystems and science instruments in good health. By the middle of November, the spacecraft will have reached 70° south solar latitude, marking the start of the third South Polar Pass. |
| Date: 10 Nov 2006 |
|
|
| Ulysses Status Report - May 2006 |
| Mission Status The outcome of the NASA Sun-Solar System Connections 2005 Senior Review held on 14-15 November was positive for Ulysses. The panel recommended continuation of the mission until March 2008 as proposed. This is reflected in the NASA budget allocation for the project. All spacecraft subsystems are operating nominally. On 1 June 2006, Ulysses will be at a radial distance of 3.85 AU from the Sun, and heliographic latitude 50° south of the solar equator. |
| Date: 22 May 2006 |
|
|
| Ulysses Status Report - February 2006 |
| Mission Status All spacecraft subsystems are operating nominally. On 1 February 2006, Ulysses will be at a radial distance of 4.35 AU from the Sun, and heliographic latitude 40° south of the solar equator. |
| Date: 15 Feb 2006 |
|
|
| Ulysses Status Report - November 2005 |
| Mission Status A major milestone for Ulysses was reached on 6 October, namely the 15th anniversary of the launch from Cape Canaveral on board the space shuttle Discovery. After 15 years of operations, and a journey of 7 billion kilometres, the spacecraft and its scientific payload remain in good health, and no anomalies have occurred during the reporting period. |
| Date: 28 Nov 2005 |
|
|
| Ulysses Status Report - April 2005 |
| Mission Status The spacecraft and its scientific payload are in good health, and no anomalies have occurred during the reporting period. The situation concerning the budget for NASA's contribution to the mission remains a concern. |
| Date: 09 May 2005 |
|
|
| Ulysses Status Report - February 2005 |
| Mission Status The spacecraft and its scientific payload are in good health and no anomalies have occurred during the reporting period. Nevertheless, because of the large distance from the Sun and the decreasing radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) output, the general spacecraft thermal environment is currently well below the lower limits originally foreseen for the mission. |
| Date: 10 Mar 2005 |
|
|
| Ulysses Status Report - November 2004 |
| Mission Status The spacecraft and its scientific payload are in good health. Solar Conjunction operations began on 23 August, with the actual Conjunction (the ninth in the 14-year history of the
mission) occurring on 1 September. At such times, the alignment of the spacecraft, Sun, and Earth is such that the radio communication ray-path passes close to the Sun, causing degradation to the signal. |
| Date: 29 Nov 2004 |
|
|
| Ulysses Status Report - May 2004 |
Mission Status
The Jupiter Distant Encounter (JDE) campaign that commenced on 25 January was completed successfully on 8 March. The on-board tape recorder has been switched on again, marking the end of more than 40 days of 24-hour per day real-time coverage by the Deep Space Network. |
| Date: 24 May 2004 |
|
|
| Jupiter Encounter Approaches |
Mission Status The spacecraft and all scientific instruments are in good health. Preparations are underway for the Jupiter Distant Encounter campaign that will take place between the end of January and mid-March 2004. |
| Date: 26 Jan 2004 |
|
|
| Ulysses Status Report - October 2003 |
| The mission is progressing nominally, with spacecraft and all scientific instruments in good
health. One Anomaly Report was issued during the reporting period, concerning problems
with the upload of new software for the GRU/DUST experiment. The problem was traced to
the software code itself, and the previous version was subsequently re-loaded successfully
pending corrections to the new code. |
| Date: 13 Oct 2003 |
|
|
| Ulysses Status Report - April 2003 |
| The mission is progressing nominally, with spacecraft and all scientific instruments in good
health. Unusually, three Anomaly Reports (ULY056, 57, and 58) were issued during the
reporting period. The first concerned a command error caused by an incorrect bit-rate
selection, while the second anomaly was the result of ground segment problems. The subject
of Anomaly Report ULY058 ('EPC Switchover 2') is an autonomous switch-over from the
prime to the redundant Travelling Wave Tube Amplifier (TWTA) and Power Conditioning
units (EPC) that occurred on 15 February, and the subsequent failure to switch back to the
prime units on 6 March. The redundant EPC/TWTA units are operating nominally, and no
further attempts will be undertaken to switch back to the prime units at this time. |
| Date: 18 Apr 2003 |
|
|
| Ulysses Status Report - February 2003 |
| The mission, now in its 13 th year of science operations, is progressing nominally, with
spacecraft and all scientific instruments in good health. One Anomaly Report (ULY055
"Early termination of open-loop slew") was issued during the reporting period. The
manoeuvre in question was the last in a series of four to calibrate the Upper Axial 1 (UA1)
thruster. The early termination was traced to an error in a command file that had been edited
by hand. Corrective action has been taken to ensure that in future, the Flight Dynamics
Command Analyser software processes all command files that have been manually edited.
The first three UA1 calibration manoeuvres were successfully executed, making it
unnecessary to repeat the failed manoeuvre. As noted in the last report, preparations for the
next NASA Sun-Earth Connections (SEC) Senior Review (to be held 10-13 June) are
underway. The 2003 Review will address funding priorities within NASA for FY 2004-2005,
and issue guidelines for FY 2006-2007. On 25 February, Ulysses will be at a radial distance
of 4.65 AU from the Sun, and heliographic latitude 20: north of the solar equator, on its way
to aphelion.
|
| Date: 03 Feb 2003 |
|
|
