Recent and Planned Planetary Data System Geosciences Node Activities

Introduction: The Geosciences Node of NASA’s Planetary Data System archives and distributes science data relevant to the study of planetary surfaces and interiors. The node works with missions to help them generate quality archives and with end users to help them obtain and use the archives. The node is planning new services that will benefit both the producers and the users of planetary geoscience data. PDS Background: The basic premise of the Planetary Data System (PDS) is that science data are best maintained by scientists who are interested in using the data. Hence PDS is an organization of several discipline-specific nodes, each located at the home institution of a research group of experts in the discipline. The Geosciences Node is located in the Earth and Planetary Remote Sensing Laboratory, part of the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. The Laboratory’s primary focus is on the study of the surfaces and interiors of terrestrial planets, and therefore the Geosciences Node archives and distributes science data relevant to that discipline. The Geosciences Node and PDS as a whole serve both the producers of the science archives and the consumers of the archives. Specific functions are: • To enable NASA planetary missions to produce well-documented, peer-reviewed archives. • To preserve the archives for the long term, beyond the life of the mission and the lives of the people that generated them. • To make archives available to the public, in particular to the knowledgeable science user. • To help users get the most from the science data by providing expert advice. • To set standards for planetary archives. • To work with space agencies outside the U.S. to facilitate the sharing of science data from all planetary missions. Services to Data Providers: The Geosciences Node works with data providers associated with NASA planetary missions and with individual scientists preparing archives derived from mission data or laboratory data. Most of the work is with missions, starting in the early planning stages long before launch. Each science instrument on a mission’s payload is assigned a PDS node to guide the instrument team in its design and production of science archives, and one PDS node is designated as the mission’s overall lead for archiving. A Data and Archives Working Group is formed to coordinate the archive work, consisting of representatives from each instrument team and the relevant PDS nodes. The archive preparations are documented in the mission’s Archive Plan and in agreements between data providers and PDS nodes. Figure 1 shows a timeline of the current and upcoming NASA planetary missions for which the Geosciences Node is leading the archive work. Science archives are required to conform to PDS standards for labeling and documentation. The archives are submitted to a peer review committee while still in the design stage so that there is time to implement any changes recommended by the reviewers. This step is crucial to ensuring a quality archive, and PDS depends on knowledgeable and thorough science reviewers. During the course of the mission as the archives are being produced, they are validated for science content by the instrument teams and for PDS compliance by the PDS node that receives the data. The data are released by PDS to the public at regular intervals according to the Archive Plan schedule. Services to Data Users: All data archived with PDS are available to the public. PDS maintains a searchable data base of all its holdings (see http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov), and PDS nodes provide addi-