The Ulysses space mission.

Abstract

The authors describe briefly the collaborative ESA-NASA Ulysses mission which will provide, for the first time in the history of the solar-system exploration, in situ observations of the heliosphere over a broad range of heliographic latitudes. Launched on October 6, 1990, Ulysses has been injected in a high-inclination orbit by means of a gravity-assisted manoeuvre at the time of his encounter with Jupiter, in February 1992. On-board instrumentation will obtain data on the solar wind, the heliosphere magnetic field, radio, X- and γ-bursts, plasma waves and interplanetary and interstellar gas and dust.