baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov (Ron Baalke) (11/07/90)
ULYSSES STATUS REPORT
November 6, 1990
As of 10AM (PST), Sunday, November 4, 1990, the Ulysses spacecraft is
16,960,000 miles (27,300,000 km) from Earth and 484,863,000 miles
(780,312,000 km) from Jupiter. The spacecraft is traveling at 89,081 mph
(143,362 kph) relative to the Sun, and 22,900 mph (36,853 kph) relative
to the Earth.
On November 2 the Second Trajectory Correction Maneuver was carried out.
The maneuver was a pulsed radial delta-V maneuver with a duration of one hour
and forty three minutes. The absolute value of delta-V imparted to the
spacecraft was 3.784 meters/second.
On November 3, the first activity of the day was to switch off the SIM
(Cosmic Rays and Solar Particles) experiment prior to the deployment of the
wire booms. This was followed by the release of the protective covers of the
Low Energy Charged Particle Experiment (LAN). The initial switch-on of the
Radio and Plasma Wave Experiment (STO) then took place. The experiment was
then configured to monitor the deployment. The on-board X-band downlink was
then switched on to also provide further data on the dynamics of the wire
boom deployment. Deployment then took place. The deployment procedure
lasted for a total of fifty seven minutes. Confirmation of a succesful
deployment of both booms was received from the STO experiment team. Following
the deployment, some reconfigurations of the STO experiment were carried out.
A re-adjustment to the spin rate of the spacecraft was then carried out.
The final activity of the day was to switch off the X-band downlink to
maintain a desired thermal environment on board. The X-band downlink will be
restored on November 15.
On November 4, the first activity was to configure the STO experiment to
monitor the axial boom deployment. The axial boom was then deployed. The
deployment procedured lasted for eleven minutes. The STO experiment reported
a full deployment of the axial boom. The HED (Magnetic Field) experiment was
then switched off to enable the STO experiment to measure background
environment with HED switched off.
Switch-on of the experiments then re-commenced. The first switch-on to
occur was the KEP (Energetic Particles and Interstellar Neutral Gas)
experiment. This activity was followed by the HED experiment which in turn
was followed by the SIM experiment.
Several hours after the axial boom deployment had been carried out, the
build-up of a nutation-like motion was observed. The motion finally stabilised
at an amplitude of approximately 0.4 degrees. The phenomena is under
investigation.
Today, the Solar Wind Ion Composition Experiment (GLG) switch-on will take
place. This will be interleaved with the monitoring and control of the
experiments which have already been switched on. The GLG checkout will
continue on through tomorrow. On November 8, on-board tape recorder tests
will commence. On November 9, the Solar X-rays and Cosmic-ray Bursts
Experiment (HUS) switch-on will take place.
___ _____ ___
/_ /| /____/ \ /_ /|
| | | | __ \ /| | | | Ron Baalke | baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov
___| | | | |__) |/ | | |___ Jet Propulsion Lab | baalke@jems.jpl.nasa.gov
/___| | | | ___/ | |/__ /| M/S 301-355 |
|_____|/ |_|/ |_____|/ Pasadena, CA 91109 |