Filling Out Context Object Classes
Following are the context object classes and their attributes. Only one instance of one of these may appear in any context product. Only the context objects that a data preparer is likely to use are listed. There are some additional objects used for PDS system maintenance. Your PDS consultant will advise you directly in the unlikely event you need to create context products for these,
For additional explanation, see the PDS4 Standard Reference, or contact your PDS node consultant.
Note that in the PDS4 master schema, all classes have capitalized names; attributes never do.
Contents
<Agency>
This is used to provide basic information about an agency, like NASA or ESA.
<name>
REQUIRED
The name of the agency. Use the full name, and if there's a popular acronym include it in parentheses following the name.
<description>
REQUIRED
This is for a brief description of the agency named.
<Facility>
This class is used for facilities like a terrestrial labs and observatories.
<name>
OPTIONAL
The name of the facility. Use the full name, and if there's a popular acronym include it in parentheses following the name.
| Note: This attribute is currently optional, but should be required, logically. It will be required for all Facility objects created by SBN data preparers. |
<type>
OPTIONAL
This must be one of the two standard values Laboratory or Observatory. If you need a different value, contact your PDS consultant.
| Note: This attribute is currently optional, but should be required, logically. It will be required for all Facility objects created by SBN data preparers. |
<address>
OPTIONAL
This is a text field to hold the address (mailing address, street address or both) of the facility.
<country>
OPTIONAL
This attribute is for the name of the country. It's not clear why this is here. If you use it, I suggest you use it for the full name of the country, with the intention of using it for searching out ground-based observatories and related data by country of origin.
<description>
OPTIONAL
This is a place for free-format text to provide additional relevant details about the facility.
<Instrument>
Use this for anything that can be reasonably considered to be an instrument, in the "taking data" sense.
<name>
OPTIONAL
The name of the instrument. Use the full name, and if there's a popular acronym include it in parentheses following the name.
| Note: This attribute is currently optional, but should be required, logically. It will be required for all Instrument objects created by SBN data preparers. |
<version_id>
OPTIONAL
| Note: The version of the Instrument product is in the Identification_Area. This version_id should never be used. |
<type>
REQUIRED
This must be one of the standard values listed in the Standard Values Quick Reference. If the instrument you're describing corresponds to more than one of these values, you may repeat the <type> attribute.
<description>
REQUIRED
Free-format text description of the instrument.
<naif_instrument_id>
OPTIONAL
If the instrument being described has a NAIF identification code, type it in here.
<serial_number>
OPTIONAL
If the instrument has a known serial number, this is the place for it.
