NASA Planetary Data System PDS Chief Scientist Report

NASA Planetary Data System (PDS) Chief Scientist Report Ralph L. Mc. Nutt, Jr. (Outgoing) PDS Chief Scientist 4 April 2018

Backdrop • Three-years as PDS Chief Scientist – 13 May 2015 through 12 May 2018 • Major task was coordinating the production of a new PDS Roadmap • Proposal submitted 27 April 2015 • A Cooperative Agreement to Serve as the Chief Scientist for NASA’s Planetary Data System (PDS) Including Developing a Strategic Planning Process With a 20172026 Roadmap 4 April 2018 PDS Management Council Meeting - Las Cruces 2

The Roadmap Effort • Concentrated effort lasted just under one year – Roadmap Study Team (RST) finished 23 June 2017 • “Welcome to the Team” E-mail sent 29 July 2016 • Kick off telecon 22 August 2016 • Face-to-Face meetings held 13 -14 October 2016 and 8 -10 February 2017 in Towson, Maryland – Briefed to NASA Headquarters 5 September 2017 4 April 2018 PDS Management Council Meeting - Las Cruces 3

Outcomes • Consensus, community-based, high-level guidance on items for the PDS to address: – Provision of people and funding to accelerate PDS 3 to PDS 4 migration – Strengthen and formalize PDS Project Office – Provision of focus on needed tool development and web presence update • Initial progress being made – continued progress is vital 4 April 2018 PDS Management Council Meeting - Las Cruces 4

PDS Needs are a Moving Target • The information technology (IT) world continues to evolve at an accelerating pace – – Hardware and software change and evolve Security and file integrity require active management Data volumes and complexities continue to grow Backward compatibility challenges increase with “unknowns” • Staying “ahead of the curve” of user needs of all stakeholders in an efficient way will remain a management challenge for PDS • These are not new challenges – they will also not go away 4 April 2018 PDS Management Council Meeting - Las Cruces 5

Example: Archive from 1928 • Economic research in 1920’s at the London School of Economics (LSE) by team led by William Beveridge sought to uncover causes of unemployment – – • • Data teams dispersed Most data never published In over 300 boxes stored in LSE archives Almost 70, 000 data entries Significant Most entries handwritten in pencil and ink changes in needs and technology Typescript characters not recognized by over 90 years modern OCR algorithms 4 April 2018 PDS Management Council Meeting - Las Cruces 6

Metadata is Crucial • In general more metadata is better – But it must be organized to be usable – Structure/Schema – It must also be accessible in an “obvious” way - Tools • PDS now making progress on exactly these topics, e. g. , PDS 4 Data Dictionary effort – Definitions – Content – Tools 4 April 2018 PDS Management Council Meeting - Las Cruces 7

Managing the Future • The further one tries to predict the future, the more problematic the prediction • That doesn’t mean don’t try… • There will be disruptive technologies – Some will be adopted – Some will (eventually) fail – They must be dealt with 4 April 2018 PDS Management Council Meeting - Las Cruces 8

A (Scary? ) Example • Need for maintenance of archive integrity – Knowledge of all changes • Migration to “cloud” for economies of scale – New security challenges • Universal ”transparency” – Tamperproof public “ledger” 4 April 2018 PDS Management Council Meeting - Las Cruces 9

PDS Storage Approach • Could the PDS holdings – or any archive – be stored as a massive blockchain? – Blockchains have been suggested for the storage of medical records – “Once recorded, the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without the alteration of all subsequent blocks, which requires collusion of the network majority. ” – from Wikipedia entry for blockchain • Is that a direction technology might go? 4 April 2018 PDS Management Council Meeting - Las Cruces 10

Just Don’t Lose the Key… 4 April 2018 PDS Management Council Meeting - Las Cruces 11