The Future of EUVE

The NASA Astrophysics Program faces harsh realities in the new NASA budget environment. Even though there is an increasing number of successfully operating NASA astrophysics satellites, the Astrophysics Division mission operations and data analysis budget will be decreasing annually over the next few years. As a result the NASA Astrophysics Division must either terminate operation of successful and highly productive observatories or develop techniques for operating satellites at radically lower costs.

The NASA Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) astronomy satellite, which is presently operating flawlessly and returning a stream of scientific breakthroughs in the new field of EUV astronomy, had been slated to be turned off in 1996. In December 1994, NASA made a decision to extend the EUVE mission through 1997, partly based on the developments reported in this paper.

In the EUVE Extended Mission, scientists will continue to propose research observations through the Guest Observer Program. In addition, the astrophysics community can request observations with the EUVE imaging scanners through the Internet. Scientists and technologists may request specific sets of data from the EUVE archive through the World Wide Web, and finally, technologists may propose to conduct technical experiments with the satellite. CEA will offer streamlined services but with reduced staff levels. The impact of the Extended Mission on the community is that the lifetime of the satellite for research has been extended, but most of the support will be through electronic, automated means. CEA is working with NASA and industry to formulate new and innovative ways to continue the level of operation at a drastically reduced financial budget.

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