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Retired astronomy professor attends international planetary data conference

Retired New Mexico State University planetary science professor Reta Beebe spent part of her summer in Rome trying to align the planets in outer space - or, at least trying to align a set of standards for planetary data.

Beebe is chief scientist for the NASA Planetary Data System (PDS) and attended the fourth annual International Planetary Data Alliance (IPDA) June 30-July 3. Representatives from the European Space Agency (ESA) and space agencies from Great Britain, Italy, Japan, France, Spain and Germany also were at the meeting. China and Russia are also participating members of the alliance but were not in attendance.

"The IPDA is a group of people who work on trying to build really usable long-term archives for various space agencies to be accessed by scientists and students," Beebe said. "It's a really positive experience."

The goal of the committee is to work together to develop a set of standards describing planetary science data across the international community and establish standard data forms to allow usage of the data regardless of where it is stored.

Reta Beebe attended the fourth annual International Planetary Data Alliance this summer as part of a continuing effort to develop a standard for planetary data. Beebe is in the second row, second from right. (Courtesy Photo)

Each year, Beebe said, the group defines areas that need development and teams are formed to work on these areas. Throughout the year, the teams communicate with each other by e-mail or teleconference.

This year, Nancy Chanover, an assistant professor in the Department of Astronomy, chaired an interoperability project that developed a system to allow international scientists to enter the NMSU Atmospheres Node of the PDS via an Internet browser and find and acquire data from the ESA Venus Express Mission that is stored near Madrid, Spain.

Beebe said she enjoys attending the annual meetings because it gives her a chance to get to know the people better whom she has been communicating with exclusively through telephone conversations and e-mails.

Beebe has worked with NASA since 1969 and currently serves as manager of the Atmospheres Discipline Node located at NMSU's Las Cruces campus.

Written by Audry Olmsted.