7 Conclusions

The new interplanetary GRB network may provide several distinct benefits to the gamma-ray burst community. First, the IPN will be able to promptly define GRB source locations of use to optical astronomers for some months after NEAR enters Eros orbit in 1999, bridging the gap between the present and the launch of HETE-2, expected in early 2000. Second, the IPN will also provide an extended number of GRB source localizations on a somewhat less prompt scale but adequately rapid for radio astronomical work. Third, to possibly complement the remarkable BeppoSAX results that have been generally confined to the longer, complex variety of bursts, the IPN, because of its triggering techniques, should provide results for brief, single-spike events that have been speculated to form a separate population. Finally, it is entirely possible (if the GRB discipline continues to be as unpredictable as before) that some unexpected result could be provided.