After 18 years of operation, NASA has switched off Ulysses, the space probe designed to study the properties of solar wind, the heliosphere magnetic field, and the solar radio bursts that can greatly affect our gadgets, telecommunications, and every electronic system here on planet Earth. It was the first object to see and study our Sun's poles.

But Ulysses it's not dead yet, at least in spirit. If it gets lucky, it may depart to reach other stars: According to NASA, if it gets close enough to a Jovian moon, Ulysses will jump into a new course that will lead the brave probe into deep space. That certainly would be the perfect destination for a spacecraft that has provided with such an amazing amount of data about our home star. So long, Ulysses, and please say hello to Aphrodite if you see her riding her crimson shell. [NASA]

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Obviously, this report is not the last word on the subject and we will surely see more studies in the years to come. And my guess is most of these studies will be in conflict with one another. Hell, we have already seen one incident where a Taser may have helped someone with a heart condition. What's next? A study that finds Canadian criminals are more sensitive to electrocution than American criminals? [CBC News via Digg]

According to NASA, at its closest approach Solar Probe+ will be about 7 million km from the sun (image below). At that point, the probe's incredibly important carbon-composite heat shield must withstand temperatures greater than 1400 C. Oh, and there's the incessant blasts of radiation at "levels not experienced by any previous spacecraft" to contend with too.
And those mysterious alluded to earlier? NASA spells them out thusly:

• Mystery #1—the corona: If you stuck a thermometer in the surface of the sun, it would read about 6000o C. Intuition says the temperature should drop as you back away; instead, it rises. The sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, registers more than a million degrees Celsius, hundreds of times hotter than the star below. This high temperature remains a mystery more than 60 years after it was first measured.
• Mystery #2—the solar wind: The sun spews a hot, million mph wind of charged particles throughout the solar system. Planets, comets, asteroids—they all feel it. Curiously, there is no organized wind close to the sun's surface, yet out among the planets there blows a veritable gale. Somewhere in between, some unknown agent gives the solar wind its great velocity. The question is, what?

"To solve these mysteries, Solar Probe+ will actually enter the corona," said program scientist Lika Guhathakurta of NASA Headquarters. "That's where the action is." No kidding. Just be sure to bring the SPF 10,000, little guy. [NASA]

The latest glitch arrived after a week of successful tests involving the sleepy scoop arm, and could dash the earlier sense of optimism that arose at mission control when Phoenix spied a shiny ice sheet just beneath its feet.

Photos of the fail were released by the University of Arizona team on Saturday, and showed "a scoopful of dirt sitting on and around the open oven door after being dumped by the craft's 8-foot robot arm." None of the dirt made it into the tiny chamber, however. If it had, the miniature oven housed within would have begun heating the soil to test it for gasses, water or organic compounds.

It's a minor issue, considering there are seven more ovens to work with, so let's have a bit of fun at the Lander's expense, courtesy of CNN's "story highlights" (which sound just like a stammering Jason Biggs in American Pie after he, too, fails to seal the deal):

• Photos show dirt around oven door, but none made it into chamber (premature excavation)
• "We think everything is working correctly," says scientist in charge of oven (the classic, "I swear, this is the first time this has ever happened!")
• If oven is unusable, lander has seven more ("I've got reserves!")
• Scientists will spend next several days trying to figure out the problem (porn)

There's also a potentially malfunctioning vibrator to consider, although initial tests showed it was working as designed (seriously, read the article). In the meantime, NASA reports scientists will continue to poke around in the soil and do additional digging. [The Associated Press]

"It's the consensus of all of us that we have found ice," said Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson, which is leading the Phoenix project with help from NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab. "It's shiny and smooth - it's absolutely astounding!" he said. Exclamation points aside, Smith did concede, as scientists are wont to do, that the gleaming slab could be "something else," but the leading interpretation is that future tests will confirm it is ice.

The patch, which was discovered by Phoenix's camera during a routine inspection of its legs, joins several existing targets of digging opportunity. One is called Humpty Dumpty, and the second is the King of Hearts. The ice patch? Thy name is "Holy Cow!" said Smith. All three sites will presumably be where the lander's robotic scoop arm will dig to begin a set of experiments that could prove or disprove the presence of organic, life building compounds on Mars. [SFGate]

Product Page [eControlSystems]

Inside Seagate's R&D Labs [Wired]

The Japanese company received a subpoena from the Justice Department's antitrust division seeking information about Sony's static random access memory, or SRAM, business, company spokesman Atsuo Omagari said.
SRAM is found in relatively small quantities in personal computers. It's also used in disk drives, communications equipment and networking gear.
He would not elaborate on who manufactures the chips for Sony or to whom Sony sells them.
A separate DOJ investigation into price-fixing among DRAM companies has so far resulted in more than a dozen charges against individuals and more than $731 million in fines against Samsung Electronics Co., Elpida Memory Inc., Infineon Technologies AG (IFX) and Hynix Semiconductor Inc.

Seriously, it's not like we actively look for Sony's bad news. But it's like shooting a barrel full of drunk monkeys—you're bound to go home with at least one. – Jason Chen

U.S. Justice Dept. Probing Sony Unit [AP via Kotaku]