Lessons Learned for NASA Missions Delivering Data to the Planetary Data System

This paper presents lessons learned for NASA missions charged with the delivery of data to the Planetary Data System (PDS). These lessons are drawn from experiences on the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) and Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) missions and the Miniature Radio Frequency (Mini-RF) instruments. NASA’s Science Mission Directorate sponsors the PDS in order to “ensure the long-term usability of NASA data and to stimulate advanced research.”* The general science community benefits when missions collaborate with the PDS to make their data available. These lessons focus on good practices that facilitate on-time delivery of highquality products within budget. They relate to management practices, team organization, coordination within the project team and with PDS personnel, technical understanding of the data products, and knowledge of PDS standards by the archiving staff. I. Introduction S a matter of longstanding policy and practice, NASA archives all science mission data products to ensure long-term usability and to promote widespread usage by scientists, educators, decision-makers, and the general public. The Planetary Data System (PDS), originally developed in the late 1980s, provides access to data from more than 50 years of planetary science investigations. Planetary missions deliver validated data to the PDS in standard, agreed-upon formats to afford the science community near-term access to those data, which are also preserved for long-term access. The importance that NASA places on providing universal access to data is reflected in the fact that success in PDS deliveries is now one of the evaluation criteria for extended-mission proposals. This paper presents lessons learned from the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) mission, focusing on good practices that facilitate on-time delivery of high-quality products within budget. The MESSENGER effort built upon experience delivering data archives for the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission and for the Miniature Radio Frequency (Mini-RF) instruments on the Chandrayaan-1 and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft. Background information for the missions, instruments, and the PDS is provided. Team perspectives are summarized, and lessons learned are provided in the areas of management, team organization, coordination and communication, planning and tracking progress, product development, data volumes, tools, facilities, and public outreach.