It is always bittersweet, or perhaps outright sad, to see a probe powered down, but that is life. After a highly successful mission of about 18 3/4 years, Ulysses is being switched off.
http://ulysses-ops.jpl.esa.int/
Friends of Ulysses can keep track of the progress of the final day of operations via mission operations blog updates
http://ulysses-ops.jpl.esa.int/ulsfct/ulysses-ops-blog.html
and live streaming video at http://livestream.com/eurospaceagency/
(showing other programmes before 30-Jun-2009 15:00UTC - live coverage begins about an hour from now)
If you have followed this amazing probe and all the science it has been producing for decades, revoluzionizing our understanding of the sun, the solar wind, the interstellar media, and much more (including ruling out a Big Crunch) - perhaps you can have a word with your contacts at nasa, esa, jpl, and other institutions, your alma mater, your Congress representative... and all of your friends and colleagues of course - stressing the importance and uniqueness of the scientific returns of the one and only out-of-ecliptic mission, with no similar mission in sight or even being planned, and insist upon an aliveness check in about three years, when the probe will be close to its fourth solar polar pass. It is hard to request support for the mission under current conditions, the probe is far away, at small heliographic latitude, communicates at low rate, instruments are on power sharing, and DSN network is heavily overloaded. But, Ulysses will in about three years make a fourth solar pass which can provide incredibly precious data, also correlating with the data of other spacecrafts ranging from Ibex to the Clusters (which will soon start providing an unprecedented full view of the sun from opposite sides - it is not the original ISPM but it is as close as it gets). Ulysses has very good chances of being operational after the "cruise", it is the only probe ever sent OOE and there is none planned to follow in the near future. The public can play an important role in these decisions. After all, it is the general public who pushed a SM4 for Hubble space telescope, who pushed support to the Pioneers till the very end and beyond (it must be said on a much less crowded Deep Space Network) and it is to appease the general public that the very unlikely attempt to communicate with Phoenix has been planned. Please let NASA, ESA, JPL hear from you. Thank you in advance for taking the time.
And here is the address of the Ulysses team to congratulate them on their outstanding mission:
[email protected]
