baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov (Ron Baalke) (11/06/90)
ULYSSES MISSION STATUS
November 5, 1990
Today, the Ulysses spacecraft is about 18 million miles from Earth,
and traveling at a heliocentric velocity of about 88,000 miles per
hour.
With the completion of the spacecraft's second
trajectory correction maneuver last week, instrument switch-ons
and tests are the chief scheduled events for the Ulysses mission
in the days ahead. In the trajectory maneuver, on Friday, November 2,
the spacecraft fired its thrusters for 1 hour, 43 minutes to adjust the
aim point for its flyby of Jupiter in February 1992.
On Sunday, November 4, the spacecraft's 7.5-meter
(24.3-foot) axial boom -- which serves as an antenna for
Ulysses's Unified Radio and Plasma-Wave experiment -- was
deployed. Following that deployment, flight controllers noticed
a slight wobble in the spacecraft as it rotated on its spin axis.
Small wobbles are expected to result when onboard equipment is
activated, and generally are minimized by a system called a
nutation damper. Nevertheless flight controllers were
investigating the condition and possible corrective actions. The
motion -- totaling 0.4 degree -- does not affect spacecraft
operation or radio communication.
Today, plans call for the Solar Wind Ion-Composition
Spectrometer to be turned on. On Thursday and Friday, November
8-9, tests of the spacecraft's tape recorder will be conducted.
On Friday, November 9, the Solar X-ray and Cosmic Gamma Ray
experiment will be turned on. Instrument tests will continue
Saturday, November 10, followed by relatively quiet monitoring
Sunday and Monday, November 11-12.
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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 |