nanila | Entries tagged with science history

Today my boss ambled in and dropped another load of Space History on my desk. This included a bunch of photographs of Cassini flight hardware (subject of a future post), but also three photos of Ulysses hardware, which is even older.

The Ulysses spacecraft, which is still in orbit although decommissioned and not operational, remains one of the few spacecraft to leave the ecliptic plane of the solar system to a significant degree. It studied the poles of the Sun. It launched in 1990, and the total mission duration was over eighteen years.

We estimate these photos are from the early 1980s. They're of the flight hardware for the magnetometer, which now drifts quietly with the rest of the silent spacecraft, between Jupiter and the Sun.

[Ulysses magnetometer sensor head]

[Ulysses magnetometer electronics box]

[Topside view of one of the Ulysses magnetometer flight boards. Look at all those beautifully hand-soldered through-hole components!]

My boss and I have begun the sad task of sorting through and either saving, re-purposing, or throwing out thirty-odd years of accumulated Cassini information. Today I found these newspaper clippings on my desk. He discovered them last night and thought I’d want them. He was right.

From The Orlando Sentinel, 16 October 1997. “Next stop for Cassini: Saturn: Probe’s long journey will keep scientists and critics waiting”

( +4 )

I didn’t know Cassini’s launch had attracted protesters due to its plutonium power source. Their signs...! “I don’t want to glow in the dark” is my favourite. I also wonder who sent these clippings to the MAG team, or if my boss had collected them himself. Must remember to ask him when he’s in next.

On a less sad note, here is an item that has been re-purposed! This is a mu-metal can, used to test magnetic field sensors. It isolates the sensor from the Earth’s magnetic field, so the sensor can be calibrated. This can was used when Cassini was being built, to test the Vector Helium Magnetometer (VHM). We will now use it in the lab to test the JUICE magnetometer sensors.