EFFECTS OF AN APPARENT SPACE DUST IMPACT ON A POSITION SENSING SOLID-STATE DETECTOR ABOARD THE ULYSSES SPACECRAFT

The High Energy Telescope (HET) is part of the COsmic and Solar Partic le INvestigation (COSPIN) aboard the Ulysses spacecraft. The Ulysses m ission is to explore the Heliosphere in three dimensions by passing ov er the polar regions of the sun. Ulysses achieved it present high incl ination (> 80 degrees) solar orbit via a gravitational sling-shot arou nd Jupiter. During or proximate to Jovian encounter, the HET suffered an apparent dust impact. The dust particle entered through the telesco pe aperture windows and damaged the top position sensing solid state d etector. This paper discusses the evidence of the impact in the data, and the effect of the impact on the detector.