Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ksr!clj@ksr.com
From: clj@ksr.com (Chris Jones)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Ulysses speeding up rel. to the sun
Keywords: tangent
Message-ID: <883@ksr.com>
Date: 5 Nov 90 12:52:58 GMT
References: <1990Nov1.213843.16644@cbnewsl.att.com> <484@hal.CSS.GOV> <1990Nov2.173226.19955@cbnewsl.att.com>
Sender: news@ksr.com
Reply-To: clj@ksr.com (Chris Jones)
Organization: Kendall Square Research Corp
Lines: 13
In-reply-to: sw@cbnewsl.att.com (Stuart Warmink)

In article <1990Nov2.173226.19955@cbnewsl.att.com>, sw@cbnewsl (Stuart Warmink) writes:
>
>I assumed that velocity w.r.t. to Sun meant *away* from the Sun.

No, I think it means as measured from the Sun's frame of reference.  Earth has
a velocity w.r.t. the Sun of about 66000 mph.  Ulysses' speed w.r.t. the Sun
immediately after launch did look like that velocity added to 30000mph plus,
which is what you would have expected the result to be.  I still have seen no
explanation of how Ulysses gained velocity in the period after the boost, but
I'm almost certain it didn't, and that there was an error in one of the
velocity reports.
--
Chris Jones    clj@ksr.com    {world,uunet,harvard}!ksr!clj