Ulysses Attitude and Orbit Operations: 13+ Years of International Cooperation

Abstract

This paper describes some of the operations experience of the ESA flight dynamics and NASA/JPL navigation teams on the Ulysses mission. It provides an overview of the major mission milestones and key dates for Ulysses and brief introductions to the attitude and orbit control systems on-board the spacecraft and the on-ground flight dynamics and navigation systems. A section of the paper discusses some aspects of attitude manoeuvre operations while another discusses the orbit determination strategy employed on the mission. There is also a discussion of the solar heating induced spacecraft nutation and the techniques employed to control it. Finally some low cost operations practices are presented.