A Common Model to Handle PDS3 and PDS4 Data in the New Planetary Science Archive (PSA)

Abstract:

The first of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) planetary missions to make use of the latest release of the Planetary Data Standards (PDS4) are currently in advanced stages of development (ExoMars, BepiColombo). This occurs at a time when the Planetary Science Archive (PSA) has been undergoing a complete reengineering in order to increase the accessibility of ESA’s planetary data holdings utilising the latest technologies and to significantly improve the user experience for both the specialist scientific community and general public alike.

The PSA must also keep on handling PDS3 data arriving to the archive from active missions (Rosetta, Mars Express, Venus Express) as well as continuing to provide access to missions that have reached the legacy phase (Huygens, SMART1, Giotto). Therefore, as part of the reengineering of the PSA, an effort has been made to map the key metadata from PDS3 and PDS4 into a common data model with the intention of providing transparency to the services that make up the new PSA, and consequently to the end user. We present how this common mapping allows the PSA to support the data deliveries from the pipelines of existing missions without the need to reprocess the PDS3 data and in addition how it should simplify the data deliveries from PDS4 missions. We review how the implementation of this data model, involving a PostgreSQL database with the PostGIS extension, enables the new PSA to be able to provide multiple methods of interoperability used by the international community, such as PDAP (Planetary Data Access Protocol), EPN-TAP (EuroPlanet-Table Access Protocol), and GIS-enabled technologies without the user having to know in detail the underlying structure of the data format.