Enabling Ultraviolet Science into the 2030’s with the Cosmic Origin Spectrograph

The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) is a far and near ultraviolet (UV) spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope installed during Hubble Servicing Mission 4 in 2009. After over a decade of operations, both UV channels remain scientifically productive and continue to offer high-quality spectroscopic capabilities. To mitigate the effect of gain-sag and provide the community with access to un-sagged regions of the FUV detector, the location of the COS FUV spectrum is periodically moved to a new location on the detector (called lifetime positions or LP). The COS/FUV channel is operating at its fourth LP on the detector (LP4) and ongoing work will enable future LPs. We present updates on the current status of COS and exciting new developments that will extend the lifetime of COS into the 2030’s. This is enabled by operating the FUV channel in a hybrid lifetime position mode with different settings at different positions on the FUV detector. In addition, previously unused regions on the detector will likely allow new lifetime positions to become available to the community, albeit with higher overheads for some settings. These new developments enable the possibility of ground-breaking science with both UV channels of COS into the 2030’s.