Challenge Overview
The goal of the NASA PDS (Planetary Data System) application is to load planetary observation data into a relational database (MySQL) in a format that will allow the data to be queried and inspected efficiently and quickly.
The focus for this project will be Small Bodies Node (SBN) data, which specializes in data concerning asteroids, comets, and interplanetary dust. We will use Halley's Comet data.
The data is organized against a couple different versions of a defined standard. It is stored as flat files on several file systems. Data files are paired with label files that describe the data format. And data is stored by mission, not by object. It is archived and maintained by the NASA Planetary Data System.
The data is searchable on this website:
http://pds.nasa.gov/
The amount of data is measured in 100s of terabytes. So we're starting with a subset focused on Halley's comet, through the Small Bodies Node group of PDS.
Final Submission Guidelines
Please see the wiki - http://apps.topcoder.com/wiki/display/docs/NASA+PDS+Import+and+Data+Model+Module+Architecture