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   PR # 12062
    The bandwidth,sensitivity, and angular resolution of ASCA are ideally
    suited to provide our first unobscured X-ray view of the Galactic
    plane. We proposehere a pilot program for an international project
    which aims to produce an image of the entire inner Galaxy ($\ell \leq
    45^\circ$, $\vert b\vert <1^\circ$)with a sensitivity to supernova
    remnants and accretion-powered binaries roughly 2 orders of magnitude
    greater than currently exists.  We describe the enormous impact this
    survey will have on such questions as the Galactic SN rate, the fract
    ion of SNe which produce neutron stars as well as initial period and
    magnetic field distributions, the structure of the hot ISM, the X-ray
    luminosity function of binaries, and the origin of the mysterious
   Galactic ridge emission.
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