The Ulysses Mission
News story originally written on June 30, 1997
Ulysses is a space mission that is exploring the Sun. Ulysses is a joint
mission of the European Space Agency
(ESA) and the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration
(NASA). Th
e ESA provided the spacecraft. NASA launched the spacecraft into a very
special orbit on
the Shuttle Discovery in October 1990. (How many years ago was that?)
You probably have magnets on your refrigerator at home. Many other
things are magnetic too. The Sun acts like it has one huge magnet inside
of it. The instruments on
Ulysses will measure how strong this magnetic pull is all around the Sun.
The spacecraft will also measure exciting things around the Sun like
solar streamers and coronal mass ejections.
The mission will be finished in December 2001. How old will you be when the mission is finished?
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