The Planetary Data System

Dr. Michael H. New PDS Program Scientist

Outline •  Background on the PDS •  PDS Discipline Nodes CAN •  PDS 4 •  Meet the new Chief Scientist •  Improving the User Experience •  Tools and Higher-Order Data Products •  2nd Planetary Data Workshop

Some background •  The PDS is NASA’s active, accumulating

archive of data returned by missions of solar system exploration.

•  Currently, holdings amount to more than 700 TB.

•  All PDS-curated products are peer-reviewed, documented, and available online to scientists and to the public without charge.

•  Online search capabilities are also provided.

Vision and Mission

Mission Statement The mission of the Planetary Data System (PDS) is to facilitate achievement of NASA’s planetary science goals by efficiently collecting, archiving, and making accessible digital data and documentation produced by or relevant to NASA’s planetary missions, research programs, and data analysis programs. Our vision

• Gather and preserve the data obtained from exploration of the Solar System.

• Facilitate new and exciting discoveries by providing access to and ensuring usability of those data to the worldwide community.

• Inspire the public through availability and distribution of the body of knowledge reflected in the PDS data collection.

Not a Monolith •  A federated data system:

u Data distributed to many servers, single interface to the world.

NASA HQ

PS: M. NewPE: W. Knopf

PDS Project Office(GSFC)

PM: T MorganDPM: E. Grayzeck

NAIF(JPL)

Engineering(JPL)

User Centered Design(ARC)

Imaging(USGS

Flagstaff)

Geosciences(WUStL)

Rings(SETI Inst.)

PPI(UCLA)

Small Bodies(U MD)

Atmospheres(NMSU)

Discipline Nodes

Technical Support Nodes

Project Management Support

Chief ScientistRadio Science AdvisorChange Control Board

SETI Inst. DN

CUB DN

ASU DN[TES]

GSFC DN[LDN, LOLA]

ASU DN[GRS]

JPL SN

UA DN[HiRISE]

ASU DN[THEMIS,

LROC]

Fundamental Tech SN

Univ. Iowa SN

PSI SN

Sub-Nodes

Data Nodes

Current Structure

PDS Discipline Nodes CAN •  The overall goal of the CAN is to establish a

network of organizations to serve as Discipline Nodes.

•  NASA is soliciting one or more proposals that outline a design to create an active and creative interface between mission providers, the science community, and the PDS.

•  Consistent with the use of the current archiving standard, PDS4, applicants are to define their own unique, creative, and agile plans and approaches to accomplish each of the seven objectives called for in the PDS CAN.

PDS Discipline Node Objectives •  Work with planetary flight projects during all phases of mission investigations to

help project personnel design datasets and data production systems. •  Ingest these new datasets into a curated archive. •  Ingest newly derived datasets created by mission teams, other NASA-funded

investigators, and the scientific community, as appropriate. •  Promote the use of planetary data and PDS standards by the scientific community

and the public by supporting research employing the archived data, analysis software, and specialized search capabilities to enhance discoverability.

•  Identify and restore datasets from past planetary missions to aid in current research, including the scientific justification that identifies those older data sets needing attention.

•  Ensure that the data are secured against natural disaster and unauthorized access and modification.

•  Perform research and development in information technology to improve data labeling and formatting standards to increase archive accessibility and improve cost effectiveness.

Schedule •  CAN Release Date March 5, 2015

•  Pre-proposal Conference March 18, 2015 (1130 ET)

•  Step 1 Proposals Due April 17, 2015 (1700 ET)

•  Step 2 Proposals Due June 1, 2015 (1700 ET)

•  Selection Announcement September 4, 2015 (target)

•  Awards Start October 31, 2015 (target)

PDS 4: The new standard •  The PDS is in the midst of a major upgrade to its

standard for data. •  The new standard is called PDS 4.

u  See “Additional Information” for a timeline of PDS technical innovations and upgrades

•  PDS 4 is built on modern, web-based technology u  A new system to support improved ingestion from

missions u  A new system to support improved access to the

data for users u  Support for international missions (more later)

Motivations for PDS 4 •  The current PDS3 was designed based on an offline system;

Both the standards and software infrastructure have evolved to support online operations.

•  The growth of PDS, both for NASA and non-NASA missions, has stressed the structure and capabilities of the PDS3 standards.

•  Software tools, infrastructure, technologies and standards have changed which makes continued maintenance and extension of PDS3 very challenging.

•  Ultimately, new software technologies and standards provides an opportunity to greatly improve the operation and usability of the PDS long-term.

PDS 4: Basic Structure •  An explicit information architecture, and…

u  All PDS data tied to a common model to improve validation and discovery

u  Use of XML, a well-supported international standard, for data product labeling, validation, and searching.

u  A hierarchy of data dictionaries built to the ISO 11179 standard, designed to increase flexibility, enable complex searches, and make it easier to share data internationally.

•  …an explicit software/technical architecture u  Distributed services both within PDS and at international partners u  Consistent protocols for access to the data and services u  Deployment of an open source registry infrastructure to track and

manage every product in PDS u  A distributed search infrastructure

Planned and Current Mission Support

ISRO, JAXA Planning PDS4

missions

Endorsed by the International Planetary Data Alliance in July 2012 – https://planetarydata.org/documents/steering-committee/ipda-endorsements-recommendations-and-actions

BepiColumbo (ESA/JAXA)

Osiris-REx (NASA) MAVEN (NASA)

LADEE (NASA) InSight (NASA)

ExoMars (ESA)

Meet the New PDS Chief Scientist

Dr. Ralph McNutt, JHU APL Dr. Faith Vilas, PSI

Thank  you,  Faith!!  

Focus on Data Users •  PDS has been criticized for not focusing

enough on data users (cf. providers). •  One of Dr. McNutt’s jobs will be to re-

invigorate (resurrect? create?) the PDS Users Group to provide community input. u  Post-CAN, new Nodes will be strongly

encouraged to create community working groups, too.

•  Another of Dr. McNutt’s jobs will be to lead the creation of a community-led strategy for the next decade of the PDS.

Improving the User Experience •  Adding or expanding user outreach:

u  Increasing number of instrument-specific user workshops. v Exploring videotaping/webcasting.

u Encouraging the creation of more User Guides as missions end. v  Exploring funding sources. v  Considering soliciting for

new Guides for completed missions.  

Tool Strategy

Data    Providers  

PDS  Data  

Management  Distribu;on  

Mission  Support  (Tools,  

Transform)  Ingest  

User  Support  (Tools,  

Transform  

Users  

Core PDS

Core PDS Tools: •  Design •  Generate •  Validate •  Transform •  Visualize •  PDS4 Tools Library Information Model (XML, RDF, JSON)

Mission Pipelines User Support Tools AMMOS APPS IRTF?

PDART : Planetary Data, Archiving, Restoration and Tools

•  New in ROSES-2014. u  Goal of program is to enhance the value of NASA’s planetary

archive. u  Solicited proposals to (1) generate higher-order data products,

(2) archive and restore data sets or products, (3) create or consolidate reference databases, (4) generate new reference information, (5) digitize data, and (6) develop or validate software tools.

u  All products must be archived in the PDS. All tools hosted on NASA’s GitHub repository (github.com/nasa).

•  ROSES-2015 call will explicitly solicit for tools to interconvert data between PDS4 and popular data formats (e.g., CDF, FITS)

Shameless Plug •  The 2nd Planetary Data Workshop •  June 8–11, 2015 at the High Country

Conference Center, Flagstaff, AZ •  Registration Fee: $325/person •  Report from the 1st Workshop available

from http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2014/1056/ •  Goal is to hold one every two years.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Timeline of Technical Innovations •  PDS 1 (before 1990)

u  High-Level Catalog for finding data sets by mission, instrument, spacecraft and target. u  Archive volumes stored and distributed on tape. u  The Object Description Language (ODL) is invented for product labeling and

capturing catalog information. •  PDS 2 (1990 – 1992)

u  CD-ROM becomes the archive and distribution volume of choice. u  High-Level Catalog simplified by using more text instead of keywords to capture

descriptive information. •  PDS 3 (1992 – 2010)

u  PDS establishes and maintains a web presence. u  Movement to online distribution of products (PDS-D). (~2002) u  Online mass storage and data bricks replace CD/DVD as archive and distribution

media. •  PDS4 (2010 – 2030?)

u  Movement to a distributed, service architecture u  Integrated federation u  New data standards, data formats and structures u  International Collaboration

PDS 4: Example Data