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EddWen
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Reged: 04/26/08
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The Ulysses spacecraft, which is the only probe that has ever had an orbit to view of the North and South poles of the Sun, will end its 18+ year mission today at 1:00 pm PDT. For those interested in such things, there should be live streaming video here beginning at 8:00 am PDT.
http://livestream.com/eurospaceagency/
Too bad they didn't have a SolarMax 90 and camera on board.
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Edd Weninger
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colinsk
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 01/17/08
Posts: 2170
Loc: CA
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I have been following this story and not had time to post it. Thnks for bringing it up. SOHO is the next one to retire.
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Mahalo,
Colin Kaminski
Coulter 10.1" Dobsonian
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AT Voyager
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ragebot
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Reged: 08/26/05
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Quote:
The Ulysses spacecraft, which is the only probe that has ever had an orbit to view of the North and South poles of the Sun, SNIP
Even if the Sun is the nearest star this post shows just how little we really know about it. Seems like it was only a couple of years ago researchers said all our models were wrong because there was twice as much oxygen in the sun as we thought, and recently there has been new research about the jet stream on the sun.
What concerns me most is the speculation that the Solar magnetic pole switches every 22 years (more or less in conjunction with the sun spot cycle); yet this mission, or any mission I know of has not had the longevity of even one sun spot cycle.
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Meade ETX 90, Meade AR5, Orion ED80, Atlas GT, 8 in Newt, Coronado DS SM40, Garrett 10.5X70, Sigma SD10, SD14, Canon 1D2, Xti, Nikon CP4500, C-14
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darkstar528
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Reged: 03/06/07
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Loc: Hodgenville, Kentucky, USA
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I agree with rage, how can you compile data on a subject that has a known(+/-) cycle without recording that data thru at least ONE complete cycle?...
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Blue skies,
Stephen "Darkstar" Ames
PST(#96038), VIXEN 8-24mm,CEMAX 2x Barlow, Thousand Oaks White Light Filter and a Meade Elec EP
CFI, CFII, MEI, working on EIEIO!
BAA Member
My solar site:
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spaceydee
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Loc: Where the Kittens Are
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I thought that the solar cycle was 2 x 11 years with 2 changes in orientation of the "magnetic polarity" I need to go back to school. 
Ulysses is an awesome spacecraft.
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Dee
space-scientist
student violinist
Nexstar8i,SV80S,80/9D,FC100,94 Brandon,TMB92SS,GM8
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ragebot
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 08/26/05
Posts: 1721
Loc: Tallahassee, FL, USA
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Quote:
I thought that the solar cycle was 2 x 11 years with 2 changes in orientation of the "magnetic polarity" I need to go back to school.
Ulysses is an awesome spacecraft.
Hi Dee,
I am often wrong about this stuff, but what I was trying to say was that the polarity of sun spot pairs switches ever ~11 years (depending on the exact length of that cycle) while the North and South poles of the sun is thought to switch every ~22 years depending on the length of that cycle, but there is not complete agreement on the poles switching; while there seems to be real agreement that the sun spots switch polarity ~ every 11 years, but with some overlap of 11 year cycles.
Maybe some of the smart guys can clear this up for me, please. 
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Meade ETX 90, Meade AR5, Orion ED80, Atlas GT, 8 in Newt, Coronado DS SM40, Garrett 10.5X70, Sigma SD10, SD14, Canon 1D2, Xti, Nikon CP4500, C-14
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EddWen
sage
Reged: 04/26/08
Posts: 409
Loc: Here or There
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Quote:
I agree with rage, how can you compile data on a subject that has a known(+/-) cycle without recording that data thru at least ONE complete cycle?...
Well, they did not plan on ending the mission now. They had some equipment heater problems. They did a work-around pumping onboard fuel (which is kept warm by another heater) past the non-functioning parts. However, this caused a small loss of fuel each cycle. Now they've run out.
The would have liked to have the spacecraft in a closer orbit to the Sun. To get it into a vertical plane with respect to the solar system, they launched to Jupiter, swept under the south pole of Jupiter and the gravity put Ulysses into the desired plane. But every orbit went out to Jupiter and back. They did get lots of good science with regard to solar wind etc., from a new perspective.
I still think they should have had a SolarMax 90 and CCD camera on board and I give the Director of Operations grief about it all the time. He's my brother-in-law.
Clear skies,
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Edd Weninger
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**** Lightshield Observatory SoCal ****
Nexstar 11 GPS Questar 3.5
A-P 900 A-P Traveler
**** Blackdog Observatory Arizona ****
A-P 155EDF A-P 1200GTO Coronado SolarMax 90
Orion ED80 Baader Mk V bino-viewer
CGE STV Canon 18x50IS
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AlienFirstClass
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 02/13/09
Posts: 1149
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Great probe...sorry to hear its life is ending.
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