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.

<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 in SBN Instrument context products.

<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.

<Instrument_Host>

This class is for describing the hardware an Instrument is physically mounted on/to.

<>

OPTIONAL

The name of the instrument host. 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_Host objects created by SBN data preparers.

<version_id>

OPTIONAL

Note: The version of the Instrument_Host product is in the Identification_Area. This version_id should never be used in SBN Instrument_Host context products.

<type>

REQUIRED

This must be one of the standard values Earth_Based, Rover or Spacecraft.

Note: These values don't make sense in many cases, or when compared to each other. Fudge it for now; hopefully this will be fixed before the version 1.0 release.

<description>

REQUIRED

This is a free-format text description of the instrument host.

<naif_host_id>

OPTIONAL

If the host has a NAIF identification code, this is the place to put it.

<serial_number>

OPTIONAL

If the host has a known serial number, it can be recorded here for posterity,

<Investigation>

This class is for describing a mission, a coordinated observing campaign, or some other large-scale, organized effort to collect data.

<name>

OPTIONAL

The name of the investigation. Use the full name, and if there's a popular acronym or nickname include it in parentheses following the name.

Note: This attribute is currently optional, but should be required, logically. It will be required for all Investigation objects created by SBN data preparers.

<type>

REQUIRED

This must be one of the four standard values: Individual_Investigation, Mission, Observing_Campaign, Other_Investigation.

<description>

REQUIRED

This is a free-format text description of the investigation.

<start_date>

REQUIRED

The date of the start of the investigation, in ISO 8601 format.

If this is, for some reason, not available, you can use the nilreason attribute, like this:

    <start_date nil_reason="missing"/>

<stop_date>

REQUIRED

The date of the end of the investigation, in ISO 8601 format.

If this is not available for some reason (most often that the investigation isn't over yet), you can use the nilreason attribute, like this:

    <stop_date nil_reason="anticipated"/>