The development of new technologies plays a major role in the Center's programs, and to some extent we can attribute part of the schedule slippage to overcoming unforeseen technical hurdles. A typical example is the infrared radiation leak in the towers of the Direct Detection effort which required designing additional shielding. Although such problems render short term schedules somewhat inaccurate, we are confident that we are not facing insurmountable difficulties in any of our programs. The installation of the CDMS experiment at a deep site remains a strong priority. The Academic Research Infrastructure award that we have received for a second Icebox leads to a significant increase of the scientific productivity, as it allows the parallel installation of a duplicate system at the deep site while running continues at Stanford.
Several possibilities are under active investigation.
Our goal is to maintain our scientific leadership for the immediate future, as the competing EROS and OGLE teams are in the process of constructing second generation systems. The greatest change in our long term vision has occurred in the Microwave Background program. Regrettably, it is no longer possible for the Center to provide strong support for the HEMT program at Santa Barbara. A further redefinition of our long term program in this area will be likely when the results of the current satellite competition is known this coming spring. Finally, as mentioned above, the budgetary limitations have forced us to seek funding for the Phase I of DEEP from the regular NSF programs.