Associating Planetary Instruments’ Data by 3D GIS and Visual Analysis: The MINERVA Framework

Planetary surface missions have emerged into complex robotic sensor frameworks collecting valuable yet heterogeneous data along the mission timeframe and spatially distributed across the probe’s working range. MINERVA provides a 3D data base, an interactive 3D viewer with GIS functionality and a visual analytics platform that helps find correlations between data coming from different instruments to discover new modes of scientific exploitation. It facilitates the access and collaborative interpretation of planetary science data, including instrument products, analyses, and annotations. It allows members of different instrument teams to cooperate in virtual workspaces by sharing observations and analyzing and annotating data in a collaborative fashion. We report on latest MINERVA developments and draw the path to its usage within forthcoming robotic missions including ExoMars.