The Ulysses mission

The Ulysses mission is unique in the history of the exploration of our solar system by spacecraft. The path followed by Ulysses will enable us, for the first time, to explore the heliosphere within a few astronomical units of the Sun over the full range of heliographic latitudes, thereby providing the first characterisation of the uncharted third heliospheric dimension. Advanced scientific instrumentation carried on board the spacecraft is designed to measure the properties of the heliospheric magnetic field, the solar wind, the Sun/win interface, solar radio bursts and plasma waves, solar energetic particles and galactic cosmic rays, solar X-rays, and interplanetary/interstellar neutral gas and dust. Ulysses will also be used to detect cosmic gamma-ray bursts and search for gravitational waves