New Mexico State University has announced that its astronomers have been honored with the NASA Silver Team Award for their contributions to the Planetary Data System (PDS), recognizing more than a decade of work to modernize the PDS using innovative computing technology.
"This Silver Team Award is for not just the people working at the PDS Atmospheres Node today, but for everyone who has been involved in the development of modern standards for the PDS, some of whom have retired or are no longer working for PDS," Nancy Chanover, principal investigator of the Atmospheres Node, said in a release by New Mexico State.
The Atmospheres Node at the Department of Astronomy has been responsible for archiving all data related to planetary atmospheres since 1995. The NMSU team received the Silver Group Award for modernizing the PDS using new computing technology, a project that required sustained efforts in transitioning the data to a more modern information model, the release added. The contributions of past and present NMSU staff members were recognized, including Astronomy Professors Reta Beebe and Chanover.
“The data continues to be used by junior researchers, students and very established senior researchers from all over the world,” Chanover said. “The data are, in many cases, so rich that even though a mission might have taken place 20, 30 or 40 years ago, people are still analyzing them and making new discoveries. For example, just recently there was a paper that made use of the Voyager observations of Jupiter, which would've been in the 1970s. So, they're still learning new information about Jupiter by going back to those Voyager data and doing a new kind of analysis in some cases.”
The role of the PDS Atmospheres Node is to receive, serve, and ensure the accessibility of data to the public, while providing expertise to users who encounter challenges in locating specific information. The node is also responsible for sending the data to NASA's deep archive for long-term preservation. The Atmospheres Node recently secured a renewed grant of $5.1 million to support its operations and initiatives, the release stated.