As to the near future, the level of effort required for project and study work will remain high. Its exact level depends strongly on decisions beyond SSD's control to be taken in early 1997: the start of the Cluster recovery (Cluster II), the Horizon 2000 Plus Cornerstone and the M4 studies. There is, however, no doubt that the squeeze on time for research will remain. Maintaining the number of Research Fellowships is therefore of great importance.
The building of space instrumentation has been the prime basis of solar system-related research in SSD since its early days. The Division intends to continue - in cooperation with the wide science community - its involvement in experiment hardware development, as clearly demonstrated in its successful bidding for participation in the payload for the Rosetta Cornerstone. The technical base and expertise for building flight hardware is, however, under serious threat with the continuous erosion of the technical in-house capabilities in ESTEC, the retirement of experienced staff and the reduction of the SSD staff complement enforced by the current ESA personnel policy. It will therefore not be possible to maintain the technical expertise built up in the Division over more than 20 years.
With the area of fundamental physics expected to become a third customer for space science missions, and SSD's planned involvement, reassessing the current distribution of resources between solar system science and astrophysics will be required.
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