Welcome to the HIA Ulysses Project

The Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics (HIA) of the National Research Council of Canada provided instrumentation and test equipment for the COsmic ray and Solar Particle INvestigation (COSPIN) on the Ulysses spacecraft. The COSPIN instrument consists of five sensors which measure energetic nucleons and electrons over a wide range of energies. This was the first participation by Canada in a deep-space interplanetary mission.

The package was proposed to NASA/ESA in 1977 as the Cosmic Ray and Solar Charged Particle Investigations out of the Ecliptic. The mission originally included two spacecraft. However, this was reduced to one in 1981 due to budget cuts in the United States. Fortunately, COSPIN was selected for the European spacecraft and wasn't seriously affected by the cuts.

The instrumentation was largely completed in 1983. However, the launch for the mission was delayed until May 1986 due to problems with the development of the Space Shuttle and the Centaur upper stage. In January 1986, the Ulysses spacecraft was undergoing its final prelaunch checkout in a hangar at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The final checkout of the HIA instrumentation was completed ten minutes before the launch of Challenger on January 28. Dave Anglin from HIA watched the launch from the roof of the hangar. After the launch, a man on the street below said "I never saw one like that before!"

Initially, there was considerable confusion as to what had happened. However, it soon became clear that Challenger had exploded and it seemed as if this might be the end of the Ulysses mission, particularly since the Centaur vehicle was cancelled in the following investigation. However, a new launch technique was developed using the PAM-S and IUS upper stages. This allowed Ulysses to be launched successfully by Discovery (STS-41) on October 6, 1990.

HIA contributed the High Flux Telescope (HFT), the low-voltage power converter (SIM-4), and the experiment checkout equipment (EXPCOE). The low-voltage power converter was built by Spar Aerospace Limited. The HFT and EXPCOE were designed and built by HIA. Although the HFT is the simplest sensor in the COSPIN package, its fast electronics and very thin detector give it unique capabilities. It was the only energetic particle instrument on Ulysses that didn't saturate in the intense radiation of Jupiter's inner magnetosphere.

The detector is set in an aluminium fan-shaped collimator. The beryllium-copper cover rolls up when released by one of the two dimple motors. The dimple motors are small pyrotechnic devices that form a dimple at one end when fired. They were used to push an arm which holds the cover closed during launch. The wires to the motors can be seen at the top of the picure. The front panel attached to the spacecraft thermal blanket with velcro. The white cap on the front panel covers the input connector for external calibration. The power and data connector is at the rear on the left.

As of January 2006, the COSPIN instrument is still in excellent health. HFT data and plots are available from the Ulysses Data System. For higher time resolution or more recent data, contact Dave Anglin.

COSPIN Consortium Home Page

ESA Ulysses Home Page

NASA Ulysses Home Page

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