Lunar Prospector Level 0 Data Archive

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Volume Format
3. File Formats
4. Volume Contents
5. Whom to Contact for Information
6. Cognizant Persons
7. Citation

Note that some of the links in this document require Internet access.

1. Introduction

Lunar Prospector (LP) was a simple, spin-stabilized spacecraft, operating in a circular, polar orbit around the Moon. The orbit during the Primary Mission had a 118 minute period and average altitude of about 100 km. The Primary Mission lasted for one year starting on January 16, 1998 and ending on January 16, 1999. The spacecraft orbit was then lowered to about 30 km to acquire higher resolution data during a 6-month Extended Mission. The Extended Mission began on January 16, 1999 and was completed on July 31, 1999. The mission ended when the spacecraft impacted into the surface of the Moon.

The science goals of LP were to map the Moon's surface composition and its magnetic and gravity fields, to determine the frequency and location of gas release events, and to search for polar ice deposits. To meet these objectives, LP had five science instruments, housed on three booms: a gamma ray spectrometer, a neutron spectrometer, an alpha particle spectrometer, a magnetometer, and an electron reflectometer. In addition, a gravity experiment used Doppler tracking data to derive gravity measurements.

This volume is one of a series that contains Lunar Prospector Level 0 data for the three spectrometers, the magnetometer, and the electron reflectometer, along with ancillary files. Level 0 data is raw unprocessed data from Lunar Prospector. A number of derived data products will be generated and archived on separate volumes. Each volume in the LP Level 0 volume series contains one calendar month of data collected by the spacecraft. Every volume in the series contains a complete set of documentation files.

The merged telemetry files contain the Level 0 data acquired by the five LP science instruments. The only processing done to generate the Level 0 merged files has been to combine the real-time and delayed playback telemetry downlinks to recover outages due to occultations or to select the downlink with higher signal-to-noise ratios. See the LVL0SIS.PDF document in the DOCUMENT directory for further information on the merging procedure. The LVL0SIS.PDF and VOLSIS.TXT files in the DOCUMENT directory describe the merged telemetry data set, along with the other data sets on this volume.

Data products archived on this volume are copies of files released by the LP Project. Errors and anomalies in the original data and comments about the archive are noted in the ERRATA.TXT file on this volume. Supporting documentation and labels conform to the Planetary Data System (PDS) Standards, Version 3.2, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) document JPL D-7669 Part 2 (7/24/1995) and the Planetary Science Data Dictionary, JPL Doc. JPL D-7116, Rev D (7/15/96).

2. Volume Format

This volume has been formatted so that a variety of computer systems (e.g., PC, Macintosh, and Sun) may access the data. Specifically, the volume has been formatted according to the ISO-9660 level 1 Interchange Standard. For further information, refer to the ISO-9660 Standard Document: RF# ISO 9660-1988, April 15, 1988.

This volume does not contain any Extended Attribute Records (XAR). Thus, some VAX/VMS users may have problems accessing files on this volume.

3. File Formats

The data files on this volume are a mix of ASCII text and binary files. All data files are described by detached PDS labels. A detached label file has the same name as the data file that it describes, but with the extension .LBL. For example, the file ATTITUDE.TAB is accompanied by the detached label file ATTITUDE.LBL in the same directory. File names within this archive comply with the "8.3" convention to conform with the ISO-9660 standard. A more detailed specification of the file names and formats is given in the VOLSIS.TXT file in the DOCUMENT directory.

All text, detached PDS label, and HTML files are stream format files, with a carriage return (ASCII 13) and a line feed character (ASCII 10) at the end of the record. This allows the files to be read by MacOS, DOS, Windows, Unix, and VMS operating systems.

ASCII tabular files (*.TAB) are formatted so that they may be read directly into many database management systems (DBMS) or spreadsheet programs on various computers. All fields are separated by commas, and character fields are enclosed in double quotation marks ("). Character fields are left justified, and numeric fields are right justified. The "start byte" and "bytes" values listed in a PDS label do not include the commas between fields or the quotation marks surrounding character fields. The records are of fixed length, and the last two bytes of each record contain the ASCII carriage return and line feed characters. This allows a table to be treated as a fixed length record file on computers that support this file type and as a normal text file on other computers.

The document, PDS label, and ASCII table files on this volume can be viewed with a Web browser. Note that to view these files, the browser may need to be configured to recognize files with extensions of .LBL and .TAB as text files.

PDS labels are object-oriented. The object to which the label refers (e.g., IMAGE, TABLE, etc.) is denoted by a statement of the form:

in which the caret character (^, also called a pointer in this context) indicates that the object starts at the given location. For an object in the same file as the label, the location is an integer representing the starting record number of the object (the first record in the file is record 1). For an object located outside the label file, the location denotes the name of the file containing the object, along with the starting record or byte number. For example:

indicates that the IMAGE object begins at record 3 of the file C102.IMG, in the same directory as the detached label file. Below is a list of the possible formats that use the ^object keyword.

^object = n

^object = n<BYTES>

^object = ("filename.ext",n)

^object = ("[dirlist]filename.ext",n)

^object = ("filename.ext",n<BYTES>)

^object = ("[dirlist]filename.ext",n<BYTES>)

where		n	starting record or byte number of the object, counting from beginning of the file (record 1, byte 1); default is record number.
		<BYTES>	indicates that number given is in units of bytes.
		filename	upper-case file name.
		ext	upper-case file extension.
		dirlist	period-delimited path-list of parent directories, in upper case, that specifies the object file directory (used only when the object is not in the same directory as the label file).

4. Volume Contents

Files on this volume are organized into a series of subdirectories below the top-level directory. The following table shows the structure and content of these directories. In the table, directory names are enclosed in square brackets ( [ ] ). See the xxxxINFO.TXT files in each directory for specific information on the files in the directory.

FILE		CONTENTS
Top-level directory
|- AAREADME.TXT		The file you are reading.
|- AAREADME.HTM		Hypertext version of AAREADME.TXT file.
|- ERRATA.TXT		List of comments and errors for this volume set.
|- VOLDESC.CAT		Description of the contents of this volume in PDS label format.
|
|- [CATALOG]		Directory containing PDS catalog information about Lunar Prospector.
| |- CATINFO.TXT		Description of files in the CATALOG directory.
| |- MISSION.CAT		Catalog object for the Lunar Prospector Mission.
| |- LPHOST.CAT		Catalog object for the Lunar Prospector Spacecraft.
| |- GRSINST.CAT		Catalog object for the LP Gamma Ray Spectrometer instrument.
| |- NSINST.CAT		Catalog object for the LP Neutron Spectrometer instrument.
| |- APSINST.CAT		Catalog object for the LP Alpha Particle Spectrometer instrument.
| |- MGERINST.CAT		Catalog object for the LP Magnetometer - Electron Reflectometer instrument.
| |- DSATT.CAT		Catalog object for the LP Spacecraft Attitude data set.
| |- DSSUN.CAT		Catalog object for the LP Sun Pulse Time data set.
| |- DSCOM.CAT		Catalog object for the LP Uplink Command data set.
| |- DSEPHEM.CAT		Catalog object for the LP Spacecraft Ephemeris data set.
| |- DSPOSIT.CAT		Catalog object for the LP Spacecraft Latitude and Longitude Position data set.
| |- DSTELEM.CAT		Catalog object for the LP Merged Telemetry data set.
| |- REFS.CAT		Catalog object for references cited in the other catalog object files.
| |- PERSONEL.CAT		Catalog object for personnel associated with the Lunar Prospector archive.
|
|- [COMMAND]		Directory containing uplink command files.
| |- COMMINFO.TXT		Description of files in the COMMAND directory.
| |- Cyydddss.TAB		File with uplink commands where yy is 2-digit year, ddd is day of year, and ss is the DSN station number.
| |- Cyydddss.LBL		PDS label for Cyydddss.TAB.
|
|- [DOCUMENT]		Directory containing document files.
| |- DOCINFO.TXT		Description of files in DOCUMENT directory.
| |- VOLSIS.TXT		Software Interface Specification (SIS) document for the archive volume.
| |- VOLSIS.HTM		Hypertext version of the VOLSIS.TXT document.
| |- LVL0SIS.PDF		LP level 0 data SIS document.
| |- MAGERFMT.PDF		Description of the revised MAG/ER data format.
| |- POSITION.TXT		Description of the spacecraft position file format.
| |- SCHANDBK.PDF		LP spacecraft and mission handbook document.
| |- SOFTGUID.PDF		LP software users and programmers guide.
| |- FDICD.PDF		Flight Dynamics interface control document.
|
|- [GEOMETRY]		Directory containing geometry files.
| |- GEOMINFO.TXT		Description of geometry files.
| |- ATTITUDE.TAB		Spacecraft attitude and spin rate file.
| |- ATTITUDE.LBL		PDS label for ATTITUDE.TAB.
| |- Eyyddd.DAT		Spacecraft ephemeris file where yy is 2-digit year and ddd is day of year.
| |- Eyyddd.LBL		PDS label for Eyyddd.DAT.
| |- Pyyddd.DAT		Spacecraft latitude and longitude position data where yy is 2-digit year and ddd is day of year.
| |- Pyyddd.LBL		PDS label for Pyyddd.DAT.
|
|- [INDEX]		Directory containing index files.
| |- INDXINFO.TXT		Description of files in the INDEX directory.
| |- MERGINDX.TAB		Index table for merged telemetry files on this volume.
| |- MERGINDX.LBL		PDS label for MERGINDX.TAB.
| |- SUNPINDX.TAB		Index table for sun pulse files on this volume.
| |- SUNPINDX.LBL		PDS label for SUNPINDX.TAB.
| |- COMMINDX.TAB		Index table for uplink command files on this volume.
| |- COMMINDX.LBL		PDS label for COMMINDX.TAB.
| |- EPHINDX.TAB		Index table for ephemeris files on this volume.
| |- EPHINDX.LBL		PDS label for EPHINDX.TAB.
| |- POSINDX.TAB		Index table for spacecraft position files on this volume.
| |- POSINDX.LBL		PDS label for POSINDX.TAB.
| |- MCUMINDX.TAB		Cumulative index of merged telemetry files on all volumes.
| |- MCUMINDX.LBL		PDS label for MCUMINDX.TAB.
| |- SCUMINDX.TAB		Cumulative index of sun pulse files on all volumes.
| |- SCUMINDX.LBL	PDS label for SCUMINDX.TAB.
| |- CCUMINDX.TAB	Cumulative index of uplink command files on all volumes.
| |- CCUMINDX.LBL	PDS label for CCUMINDX.TAB.
| |- ECUMINDX.TAB	Cumulative index of ephemeris files on all volumes.
| |- ECUMINDX.LBL	PDS label for ECUMINDX.TAB.
| |- PCUMINDX.TAB	Cumulative index of spacecraft position files on all volumes.
| |- PCUMINDX.LBL	PDS label for PCUMINDX.TAB.
| |- OUTAGES.TAB	Table of data outages for the merged telemetry files.
| |- OUTAGES.LBL	PDS label for OUTAGES.TAB.
|
|- [MERGED]	Directory with subdirectories for merged telemetry files.
| |- MERGINFO.TXT	Description of files and subdirectories in the MERGED directory.
| |- [DddX]	Subdirectory containing files for a block of 10 days where dd is the 2 most significant digits in the day of year.
| | |- Myydddhh.B	Individual merged telemetry file in binary format where yy is 2-digit year, ddd is day of year, and hh is the hour (00 to 23) for the first record in file.
| | |- Myydddhh.LBL	PDS label for file Myydddhh.B.
|
|- [SUNPULSE]	Directory with subdirectories for sun pulse files.
| |- SUNPINFO.TXT	Description of files and subdirectories in the SUNPULSE directory.
| |- [DddX]	Subdirectory containing files for a block of 10 days where dd is the 2 most significant digits in the day of year.
| | |- Syydddhh.B	Individual sun pulse file in binary format where yy is 2-digit year, ddd is day of year, and hh is the hour (00 to 23) for the first record in file.
| | |- Syydddhh.LBL	PDS label for file Syydddhh.B.

5. Whom to Contact for Information

For questions concerning this volume set:

6. Cognizant Persons

This volume set was designed and produced by Edward A. Guinness from Washington University, Marcie Smith from NASA Ames Research Center, and William Jacobsen from Lockheed Martin.

7. Citation

Citations of this data set in scientific literature should be as follows:

Binder, A.B., W.C. Feldman, A.S. Konopliv, R.P. Lin, M.H. Acuna, L.L. Hood, and E.A. Guinness, Lunar Prospector level 0 data archive, NASA Planetary Data System, LP-L-ENG/GRS/NS/APS/MAG/ER-1-MDR-V1.0, 1998.