Hi, and welcome to the Analyst's Notebook!

This section is about getting started, so let's begin with some basics.

What is the Analyst's Notebook?

The Notebook is a tool for accessing the science data archives from NASA landed Mars and lunar missions, like the Mars Curiosity rover. We've combined the data from these missions with some related engineering information and documentation to help planetary scientists better understand the missions and find data of interest. It is important to note that the Analyst's Notebook is a tool for accessing mission data by the Planetary Data System and is not itself the archive. Please contact us if you have questions!

Separate Notebooks exist for the Perseverance, Curiosity, InSight, Opportunity, Spirit, and Phoenix Mars missions. For the Moon, we have the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission in one Notebook and then all of the Apollo missions in another Notebook. They are accessible from the Analyst's Notebook web site.

If you don't already have a Notebook open, use these links to one.

 

Who is the Notebook for?

Anyone is welcome to use the Notebook, but keep in mind that the primary audience is the planetary science community. That means there are lots of technical bits that may be confusing to casual users.

How do I use the Notebook?

There is no single way to use the Notebook. Two important factors are your goals and your mission of interest.

Your goals. If you are looking for data that you know exist, the search functions and data listings are good places to start. If you want to learn about the missions and instruments, check out these help pages. Some people like to meander through the Notebook to see what is available because Notebooks are tailored to each mission. That leads to...

Your mission of interest. Notebook capabilities vary with mission, partly due to the differences between missions and partly due to the time when the Notebook was created for a mission. More recent missions produced metadata that support more features, like daily science reports or accurate target placement on images. In addition, Notebooks from more recent missions are built on lessons learned from earlier efforts and they tend to make use of newer technology. That's why Notebook features and look-and-feel varies with mission!

Where next?

First time here? Please read:

Newer users might also want to check out:

Here's the latest:

Some other topics we're calling out: