Source: NASA

10-19-2007 15:58

The Lunar Data Project (LDP) is an effort to take relevant, scientifically important ALSEP and other Apollo data archived at the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) and put it into a digital form which can be used by researchers and mission planners. The NSSDC holds the most complete collection of these data, but much are stored on hard copy media or on magnetic tapes in old, rarely used formats, making them inaccessible to most users.

The LDP will digitize the data held on microfilm, microfiche, photographic film, and hard-copy documents and will convert the magnetic tape data into standard widely-used digital formats for archive and distribution to the science and engineering communities. All these data will then be put online in a Lunar Exploration Enabling Database (LEED) in CDF (Common Data Format). LEED will provide multiple pathways and search capabilities for the data, as well as display tools. The data will also be submitted to the Planetary Data System (PDS) for validation and archiving.

NSSDC mainly distributes digital data. Effective January 1, 2007, requests for photos and non-digital data will be dealt with on a case by case basis involving the NSSDC Head. When appropriate, duplication can be initiated if all costs are recovered; this includes the potential digitization of material and posting on FTP.

 

Editor:Yang Jie