The Ulysses spacecraft encountered Jupiter in February 1992, to provide a gravity assist for its prime mission over the poles of the sun. Orbit determination performed before the nominal final targeting maneuver resulted in the maneuver being cancelled. A surprisingly large Jupiter ephemeris error resulted in a slightly different encounter than planned, but one still meeting requirements. In an accompanying experiment, an alternative method of processing two-way range data was demonstrated, showing that orbit solutions obtained from only range and Doppler data can approach the accuracy of solutions based on Very Long Baseline Interferometry, range and Doppler data. Post-encounter reconstruction of the spacecraft orbit shows that the Jupiter-relative position of the spacecraft is known to within 3 kilometers, and that the Jupiter ephemeris at the time of encounter has an uncertainty of 11, 12, and .8 kilometers in the transverse, normal, and radial directions relative to Jupiter's orbit plane.


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    Title :

    Ulysses navigation at Jupiter encounter


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    AIAA and AAS, Astrodynamics Conference ; 1992 ; Hilton Head Island, SC, United States


    Publication date :

    1992-08-01


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




    Ulysses navigation at Jupiter encounter

    MCELRATH, TIMOTHY / TUCKER, BERNADETTE / CRIDDLE, KEVIN et al. | AIAA | 1992


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