The Ulysses Orbit

 

The first orbit of Ulysses around the Sun. The path of the spacecraft is shown in red. The red dots indicate the position of Ulysses at the beginning of each year. The Jupiter fly-by swung Ulysses out of the ecliptic (the plane in which the planets orbit) and into a solar polar orbit. Also shown are the solar polar passes in 1994 and 1995. The Ulysses orbit is viewed from a perspective of 15 degrees above the ecliptic plane.

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The second orbit of Ulysses around the Sun began in April 1998 when Ulysses reached aphelion (its farthest distance from the Sun). The aphelion position also corresponds to the distance of Jupiter's orbit. Note that the spacecraft's orbital period is 6.2 years, compared to 11.9 years for Jupiter. As a result there wasn't a second "Jupiter flyby", as the giant planet hadn't "caught up" when Ulysses reached aphelion, and lay on the other side of the solar system. The second pair of polar passes are also shown.

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The second orbit of Ulysses viewed from a perspective which shows the 80 degree inclination of the Ulysses orbit to the ecliptic.

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The third and final orbit of Ulysses.

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Some artist's representations of Ulysses in it's orbit...