baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov (Ron Baalke) (11/10/90)
ULYSSES MISSION STATUS
November 9, 1990
As of 10AM (PST), Friday, November 9, 1990, the Ulysses spacecraft is
19,671,570 miles (31,658,323 km) from Earth, and 455,840,687 miles
(733,604,474 km) from Jupiter. The spacecraft is traveling at a heliocentric
velocity of 87,017 mph (140,040 kph), and 22,593 mph (36,360 km) relative to
the Earth.
On Monday, November 5, some further passive monitoring of the nutation
phenomena took place. As this had been scheduled as a monitoring only day, no
further activities took place.
On Tuesday, November 6, the Solar Wind Ion Composition Experiment (GLG)
switch-on took place. In addition to the originally scheduled activities, the
GRU Channeltron was switched on. It was then followed by the reconfiguration of
the GRU experiment. Following this, some further reconfiguration of the STO
experiment took place. On November 7, further GLG and STO experiments
reconfiguration and testing was carried out.
At the conclusion of the day's scientific operations activities, a
dynamics test was conducted to introduce a small thruster impulse which aimed
to produce an observable short term reduction in the nutation. This was
followed on November 8 by two further tests using a larger thruster impulse.
The result was that the nutation was reduced by about 20%. However, the
dynamic system re-stabilised itself as expected at the nutation value measured
prior to the maneuvers after a few hours. Further dynamic tests will be
conducted on November 13.
Today, the initial switch-on of the Solar X-Rays and Cosmic Ray Bursts
Experiment (HUS) commenced. The on-board tape recorder tests foreseen for
November 8-9 have been delayed to allow more dynamic testing time. On
November 13, the day will be devoted to carrying out further tests in the
evaluation of the nutation phenomena. The X-band downlink will also be
switched on. As a result this will delay the switch-on of the Low Energy Ions
and Electrons Experiment (LAN) by one day. Following the LAN switch-on, it is
expected to be able to switch on the Solar Wind Plasma Experiment (BAM) on
the originally foreseen date of Friday, November 16.
The DSN (Deep Space Network) support has greatly improved. A
communications system reconfiguration took place at the DSN Madrid complex.
This has significantly reduced the number of data dropouts experienced over
the reporting period.
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/_ /| /____/ \ /_ /|
| | | | __ \ /| | | | Ron Baalke | baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov
___| | | | |__) |/ | | |___ Jet Propulsion Lab | baalke@jems.jpl.nasa.gov
/___| | | | ___/ | |/__ /| M/S 301-355 |
|_____|/ |_|/ |_____|/ Pasadena, CA 91109 |