February 22, 2008: The joint NASA and European Space Agency Ulysses mission to study the sun and its influence on surrounding space is likely to cease operations in the next few months. The venerable spacecraft, which has lasted more than 17 years or almost four times its expected mission lifetime, is succumbing to the harsh environment of space.
Ulysses was the first mission to survey the space environment above and below the poles of the sun. The reams of data Ulysses returned have forever changed the way scientists view our star and its effects.
"I remember when we got those first pictures of Ulysses floating out of the space shuttle Discovery's payload bay back in October of 1990 and thinking we had a great five years ahead of us," said Ed Massey, Ulysses project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "I never dared think that we would be receiving invaluable science data on a near continuous basis for more than 17 years. Ulysses has set the bar on solar science data collection quite high."
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Jan.
14, 2008: Consider it a case of exquisite timing. Just
last week, solar physicists announced the beginning of a new
solar cycle and now, January 14th, the Ulysses spacecraft
is flying over a key region of solar activity--the sun's North
Pole.
"This is a wonderful
opportunity to examine the sun's North Pole at the onset of
a new solar cycle, "says Arik Posner, NASA Ulysses program
scientist. "We've never done this before."
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