Towards a planetary landing-site data model and decision-support framework

Kurzfassung

A considerable increase of surface coverage and the availability and accessibility of planetary data allow researchers and engineers to remotely perform detailed studies on planetary surface processes and properties, in particular on objects such as Mars and the Moon for which Terabytes of multi–temporal data at different spatial resolution levels have become available during the last 15 years. Orbiters, rovers and landers have been returning unprecedentedly detailed information and have been providing insights into the surface evolution of the terrestrial planets. While rover- and lander-based analyses are one major research aim to obtain ground truth, resource exploration or even potential establishment of bases using autonomous platforms are others and they require detailed investigation of settings in order to identify spots on the surface that are suitable for spacecraft to land and operate safely over a long period of time. What has been done in meticulous work using hardcopy material in the past is today being carried using either in-house developments or off-the-shelf spatial information system technology which allows to manage, integrate and analyse data as well as visualize and create user-defined reports for performing assessments. We here (1) review standard tasks of landing site analyses, (2) discuss issues inherently related to the analysis using integrated spatial analysis systems and (3) present a conceptual modular analysis framework for integration of data and for the evaluation of results from individual tasks in order to support decision–making for landing-site selection.