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Ulysses Space Mission Finally Coming To an End

Posted by Soulskill on from the four-more-year-four-more-years dept.

Dusty writes "After several false alarms, the Ulysses Mission is finally ending. According to the Spacecraft Operations Manager's latest status report, the last track will be on 30th June 2009 from 15:25 until 20:20 UTC. 'We've tried to bolster our dwindling tracking allocation with some success by grabbing antenna time released on short notice (mostly by the Spitzer Project). However, weekly data return figures are now typically 10% or less. And soon, even 512 bps from 70m antennas will be a thing of the past.' Further details about Ulysses' 18-year mission are available from NASA and the ESA. We discussed the failing spacecraft last summer when it looked like its fuel was going to freeze, but through clever engineering, experts managed to squeeze out another year.

5 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. Not satisfied with polluting Earth by unlametheweak · · Score: 4, Funny

    Seems like they're going to abandon the space craft as garbage, contributing yet again to intergalactic pollution. If you love this universe you should keep it clean.

    1. Re:Not satisfied with polluting Earth by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Funny

      abandon the space craft as garbage, contributing yet again to intergalactic pollution.

      Don't worry, future cockroaches will put it in a museum.
           

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    2. Re:Not satisfied with polluting Earth by unlametheweak · · Score: 4, Funny

      I take it when you're visiting people's houses, you don't leave behind any flakes of your skin, or any molecules or crumbs of any part of you behind? Hypocrite.

      I'll have you know that I molt once a year in the privacy of my bathroom. No hypocrisy here.

  2. The Ulysses mission accomplished a lot by e9th · · Score: 5, Informative
    Here is a short summary of its results. I especially like this one:

    Ulysses collected rare samples of interstellar helium isotopes, supplying evidence to support the idea that the Universe will expand forever because insufficient matter was created in the Big Bang to halt its outward march.

  3. one last attempt possible? by hcdejong · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Playing with this Java applet that shows Ulysses' position relative to Earth, Ulysses will be a lot closer to Earth in 2013. It'd be interesting to see if the shorter distance will make up for 3 more years of decay of the RTG.