XMM-Newton ñ Mission Status
The next AO is scheduled for release in Jan 2003 with a close in Mar-2003 AO-3 and results available Jun-2003 AO-3 implementation to start in Oct-2003
Based on advice from its science policy council XMM is completing the guaranteed time program as soon as possible and plans on finishing AO-1 and GTO time in Jan 2003.
There is a clear concern about the synchronization of the Chandra and XMM proposal cycles.
A European users group was formed and under the chairmanship of Jurgen Schmitt (Germany) met for the first time in March 2002- US representatives are R. Griffiths (chair of the US users group) and R. Mushotzky (US project scientist)
The main problems with the first 18 months were:
- Difficulties in operating the satellite and instruments
- Problems with processing the data
- Both of these resulted in low observing efficiency in first 12 months , late data delivery, difficulties in making data public, lack of documentation in instrument modes