The Ulysses spacecraft completed three passes of the Sun’s north and south poles over its 18+ year mission.Ulysses’ orbit around the Sun, which takes it out past Jupiter, takes 6 years to complete.This would not be a sungrazing mission though, as Ulysses was 300 million kilometres (2.0 AU) above the Sun's poles when passing over them.Once in LEO, the Ulysses set course for Jupiter, arriving in February 1992 where the probe performed the gravity-assist manoeuvre that swung it south, away from the ecliptic plane, into its unique solar orbit that would take it over the sun's south and north poles.The Ulysses spacecraft was launched into low-Earth orbit (LEO) in the payload bay of the shuttle Discovery, on October 6 th.
#Ulysses space probe generator#
The probes electronics were powered and heated by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG).It was able to do this nearly 4 times longer than originally planned. The Sun’s solar wind produces a huge bubble in interstellar space called the heliosphere. Ulysses' objective was to study and map the solar wind (and radiation) that streams non-stop from the Sun’s poles which had never been studied before.Interesting Facts About The Ulysses Spacecraft
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