An exponential increase in the volume of data from planetary explorations has rendered traditional methods of data distribution inadequate. The Magellan mission to Venus, which produced more data than all previous missions combined, was the first to use CD-ROMs for data distribution to scientists, yet even that medium is impractical for distributing many copies of large datasets. The NASA Planetary Data System Geosciences Node at Washington University has established the Magellan Standard Products Catalog for locating and ordering Magellan data. The Catalog provides search capability, image display, product ordering and electronic delivery.
Electronic delivery is practical only if access is simple, stable, and fast.
The Internet provides stability and reasonable speed, but simplicity has been difficult to achieve. To that end we are converting our present DBMS forms-based interface to HTML pages accessible on the Web. Sets of prints were distributed to scientists for use in their research. Early unmanned missions collected digital data but sometimes discarded it after the photographic prints were made. By the time of the Viking mission to Mars in the late 1970s, the volume of data collected had increased considerably, and digital data collection was the norm, but the data were still converted to photographic prints which were the primary data source for most interested scientists.