{
  "bibcode": "2001GCN..1008....1P",
  "body": "Dear colleague,\n\nthis message is to inform you about current plans to shut-down BeppoSAX by\nApril 30 this year, notwithstanding the excellent status and prospects of\nthe mission, and to solicit, if you agree, a statement of help and support\nfor the extension of BeppoSAX life for a further year.\n\n\nAll instruments and subsystems are performing satisfactorily and are stable.\nThe satellite has been operated for 4 years in 1 gyro mode and it is ready\nto be operated in gyroless mode.  This mode has been successfully tested on\nground and on-board, and its performances are expected to be comparable to\nthe previous mode.  The orbital decay estimates predict that the critical\naltitude of 450 km will not be crossed before April 2002 (worst case).\n\nBeppoSAX is at present and for at least the next year the only satellite\nable to observe extragalactic sources at hard X-rays and to follow\npromptly and systematically GRB evolution.\n\nThe budget required to operate BeppoSAX for another year is about 1% of\nthe annual budget of the Italian Space Agency (ASI).\n\nFor these reasons the BSAX Steering Committee has requested to ASI, in\nNovember 2000, the extension of BSAX operations from April 2001 to May\n2002, planning to call for an AO5 completely open to the International\ncommunity.\n\n(The proposal submitted to ASI, including the scientific case is available\nat: www.ias.rm.cnr.it/sax/AO5/AO5Docs.html)\n\n\nIf you think that a suppression of BeppoSAX will impact negatively on the\ndevelopment of High Energy Astronomy in the years 2001-2002 we ask you to\nwrite a few lines that can be used to support actions causing ASI to\nrecede from the decision.\n\nA statement on the impact of SAX results on the recent development of High\nEnergy Astrophysics and a statement on expectations from further BeppoSAX\nresults in your field of interest, could make your mail particularly\neffective.\n\nPlease be aware that we will make a public use of the previous statements\n(such as circulating or putting in a web site).\n\nWe are sending this message to various mailing lists and ask every\ncolleague to further circulate.  We apologize if you receive it more than\nonce.\n\nPlease, if you agree, send your message as an e-mail to the address\nsavesax@tesre.bo.cnr.it or use the Web form provided at\nhttp://sax.ifctr.mi.cnr.it/Savesax-2001\n\n\nFor the BeppoSAX Team:\n\nL. Scarsi (Chairman of the Steering Commitee)\nL. Piro (Mission Scientist)\n\nFor the BeppoSAX Time Allocation Committee:\n\nL. Maraschi (Chairperson of the TAC)",
  "circularId": 1008,
  "createdOn": 984750186000,
  "email": "piro@ias.rm.cnr.it",
  "subject": "Support extension to the BeppoSAX mission",
  "submitter": "Luigi Piro at IAS/CNR Frascati  <piro@ias.rm.cnr.it>"
}