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Ulysses solar probe shuts down |
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Written by Derek Kessler on
Sunday, 20 July 2008
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 (From July 1, 2008) After nearly 18 years of studying the sun, the Ulysses solar probe has finally shut down. Ulysses was launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1990 and has exceeded its expected lifespan by nearly four times, racking up 5.4 billion space miles. Ulysses, while not equipped with cameras that would give us stunning pictures like we’ve seen from other space probes, still revealed much new information about the sun’s magnetosphere and the effects of solar wind.
Ulysses’ plutonium power source has been dying for several years now. The probe’s wide orbits often took it far beyond the sun’s warming rays, where the plutonium was used to keep the maneuvering thruster fuel warm. With the plutonium slowly loosing strength, mission controllers on Earth have struggled in vain to keep Ulysses’ fuel viable. That has proven a losing struggle, so NASA decided to end the $250 million probe’s mission on July 1st, 2008.
R.I.P. Ulysses
October 6, 1990 - July 1, 2008
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