Ulysses Mission Operations Blog

UTC Timestamp: 30-Jun-2009 20:15

Ground station can not find the carrier. Transmitter is off on the spacecraft. Goodbye Ulysses.

UTC Timestamp: 30-Jun-2009 20:10

Telemetry loses lock as the spacecraft switches to use the low gain antennas.

UTC Timestamp: 30-Jun-2009 19:59

Telemetry is back in lock at 64 bits per second engineering format. The command counter confirms reception of the final command.

UTC Timestamp: 30-Jun-2009 19:57

Telemetry loses lock as the bit rate switches to 64 bits per second.

UTC Timestamp: 30-Jun-2009 19:47

Switch from receiver one to receiver two.

UTC Timestamp: 30-Jun-2009 19:40

Confirmation of the AOCS (Attitude and Orbit Control Subsystem) changes.

UTC Timestamp: 30-Jun-2009 19:34

Thruster catalyst bed heaters are off.

UTC Timestamp: 30-Jun-2009 18:35

Confirmation of the SIM high voltages have switched off.

UTC Timestamp: 30-Jun-2009 18:23

The last command has been sent to the spacecraft. This should switch the downlink into 64 bits per second engineering only.

UTC Timestamp: 30-Jun-2009 18:09

Confirmation that the primary table has been updated.

UTC Timestamp: 30-Jun-2009 17:58

Confirmation that the DSU (tape recorders) are off.

The commands to turn the SIM high voltages off are being resent.

UTC Timestamp: 30-Jun-2009 17:56

Confirmation that the CONJ is descheduled, so no more fuel bleeding every two hours.

UTC Timestamp: 30-Jun-2009 17:50

Confirmation that the X-wing heaters are on.

UTC Timestamp: 30-Jun-2009 17:39

Confirmation that the first two block commands have been received by the spacecraft.

UTC Timestamp: 30-Jun-2009 17:11

Telemetry shows the high voltage feed to the BAM instrument has turned off.

UTC Timestamp: 30-Jun-2009 16:51

The commands to turn the SIM instrument off, will be resent. It's possible that the spacecraft didn't receive them when the antenna stopped.

UTC Timestamp: 30-Jun-2009 16:13

Telemetry resumed. The loss was when the antenna stopped tracking the spacecraft.

UTC Timestamp: 30-Jun-2009 16:08

Telemetry dropped.

UTC Timestamp: 30-Jun-2009 15:46

Command modulation, on the uplink to the spacecraft, is on.

UTC Timestamp: 30-Jun-2009 15:30

First non critical parameters out of limits. Telemetry processing is proceeding as normal. The signal to noise ratio is 3.4 db.

UTC Timestamp: 30-Jun-2009 15:22

First telemetry received, day 181 15.22.26. The data quality is looking good, 256 bits per second.

UTC Timestamp: 30-Jun-2009 05:42

Live streaming from the Ulysses Mission Support Area starts at 15:20 UTC (17:20 CEST, 11:20 EDT, 08:20 PDT). Available at ESA's channel on Livestream.

UTC Timestamp: 29-Jun-2009 23:42

The Voyager mission has graciously ceded their pass on DSS-43 (Canberra 70m ground station) to Ulysses. Our next pass will therefore be over DSS-43 from 06:45 to 08:50 UTC on 30-Jun-2009. The sequence of events is expected to remain the same as that previously for DSS-14 on the same day with the exception of the event times.

UTC Timestamp: 29-Jun-2009 21:00

Received notification that DSS-14 (Goldstone 70m ground station) has been declared RED. We are scrambling to rearrange the command sequences for the final day of operations which are due to be transmitted during our scheduled pass over DSS-14 which is supposed to start tomorrow at 00:00 UTC. We are also pursuing alternate coverage over the 34m network, in which case the command sequences will be transmitted in the blind, i.e. without telemetry verification.

UTC Timestamp: 26-Jun-2009 21:19

Reload this page on 30-Jun-2009 after 15:00 UTC (08:00 PDT) for mission ops updates.