---
license: cc-by-4.0
pretty_name: "NASA PDS Planetary Missions Catalog"
language:
  - en
description: "NASA PDS planetary mission catalog — 137 missions, 115 spacecraft, and 748 instruments with target bodies, dates, and cross-references."
task_categories:
  - tabular-classification
tags:
  - space
  - nasa
  - planetary-science
  - missions
  - spacecraft
  - instruments
  - pds
  - open-data
  - tabular-data
  - parquet
size_categories:
  - n<1K
configs:
  - config_name: missions
    data_files:
      - split: train
        path: data/missions.parquet
    default: true
  - config_name: spacecraft
    data_files:
      - split: train
        path: data/spacecraft.parquet
  - config_name: instruments
    data_files:
      - split: train
        path: data/instruments.parquet
---

# NASA PDS Planetary Missions Catalog

*Part of the [Space Probes & Mission Datasets](https://huggingface.co/collections/juliensimon/space-probe-and-mission-datasets-69c3fe82d410a42b1e313167) collection on Hugging Face.*

Comprehensive catalog of **137** planetary science investigations (missions), **115** instrument hosts (spacecraft), and **748** scientific instruments from the NASA Planetary Data System (PDS). Includes mission dates, target bodies, and full cross-references between missions, spacecraft, and instruments.

## Dataset description

The NASA [Planetary Data System](https://pds.nasa.gov/) is the official archive for all NASA planetary science data. Its context catalog defines every mission, spacecraft, and instrument that has contributed data to the archive. This dataset extracts those three entity types into linked tables, making it easy to explore the full landscape of planetary exploration — from Pioneer and Voyager through Perseverance and Psyche.

Each entity includes its PDS Logical Identifier (LID), which serves as a stable cross-reference key. Target bodies, instruments, and spacecraft are linked via semicolon-separated reference columns that can be split and joined across the three configs.

## Configs

This dataset has three configs (tables):

### `missions` (137 rows)

Planetary science investigations including orbital missions, flybys, landers, rovers, field campaigns, and observing programs.

| Column | Type | Description |
|--------|------|-------------|
| `lid` | string | PDS Logical Identifier (unique key) |
| `short_name` | string | Short machine-friendly name extracted from LID |
| `name` | string | Full mission/investigation name |
| `type` | string | Investigation type (Mission, Field Campaign, etc.) |
| `start_date` | datetime | Mission start date (UTC) |
| `stop_date` | datetime | Mission stop date (UTC) |
| `description` | string | Free-text description of the investigation |
| `target_refs` | string | Semicolon-separated target body identifiers |
| `instrument_refs` | string | Semicolon-separated instrument identifiers |
| `spacecraft_refs` | string | Semicolon-separated spacecraft identifiers |
| `num_targets` | int32 | Number of target bodies |
| `num_instruments` | int32 | Number of instruments |
| `num_spacecraft` | int32 | Number of spacecraft |

### `spacecraft` (115 rows)

Instrument hosts: spacecraft, landers, rovers, ground stations, telescopes, and other platforms.

| Column | Type | Description |
|--------|------|-------------|
| `lid` | string | PDS Logical Identifier (unique key) |
| `short_name` | string | Short machine-friendly name extracted from LID |
| `name` | string | Full spacecraft/host name |
| `type` | string | Host type (Spacecraft, Rover, Lander, etc.) |
| `description` | string | Free-text description |
| `investigation_refs` | string | Semicolon-separated mission identifiers |
| `instrument_refs` | string | Semicolon-separated instrument identifiers |
| `target_refs` | string | Semicolon-separated target body identifiers |
| `num_investigations` | int32 | Number of linked missions |
| `num_instruments` | int32 | Number of instruments on this host |
| `num_targets` | int32 | Number of target bodies |

### `instruments` (748 rows)

Scientific instruments across all missions and platforms.

| Column | Type | Description |
|--------|------|-------------|
| `lid` | string | PDS Logical Identifier (unique key) |
| `name` | string | Full instrument name |
| `type` | string | Instrument type (Imager, Spectrometer, etc.) |
| `host_short_name` | string | Short name of host spacecraft (from LID) |
| `description` | string | Free-text description |
| `investigation_refs` | string | Semicolon-separated mission identifiers |
| `num_investigations` | int32 | Number of linked missions |

## Quick stats

- **137** investigations: Mission (98), Individual Investigation (19), Observing Campaign (10), Other Investigation (8), Field Campaign (2)
- **115** instrument hosts: Spacecraft (108), Lander (6), Rover (1)
- **748** instruments: null (743), Spectrometer (3), Imager (1), Radio-Radar (1)

## Usage

```python
from datasets import load_dataset

# Load all three configs
missions = load_dataset("juliensimon/pds-planetary-missions", "missions", split="train").to_pandas()
spacecraft = load_dataset("juliensimon/pds-planetary-missions", "spacecraft", split="train").to_pandas()
instruments = load_dataset("juliensimon/pds-planetary-missions", "instruments", split="train").to_pandas()

# All missions targeting Mars
mars = missions[missions["target_refs"].str.contains("mars", case=False, na=False)]
print(mars[["name", "type", "start_date"]].to_string())

# Instruments on the Cassini spacecraft
cassini_inst = instruments[instruments["host_short_name"] == "co"]
print(cassini_inst[["name", "type"]].to_string())

# Spacecraft with the most instruments
spacecraft.nlargest(10, "num_instruments")[["name", "type", "num_instruments"]]

# Cross-reference: find all instruments for a mission
mission_lid = missions.loc[missions["name"].str.contains("Galileo", case=False), "instrument_refs"].iloc[0]
if mission_lid:
    inst_lids = [f"urn:nasa:pds:context:instrument:{ref}" for ref in mission_lid.split("; ")]
    galileo_instruments = instruments[instruments["lid"].isin(inst_lids)]
```

## Data source

[NASA Planetary Data System (PDS) Search API](https://pds.nasa.gov/api/search/1/) — the official NASA archive for planetary science data. The context catalog is maintained by PDS discipline nodes and updated as new missions and instruments are registered.

## Related datasets

- [deep-space-probes](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/deep-space-probes) — Detailed deep space probe catalog from GCAT
- [cassini-saturn-observations](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/cassini-saturn-observations) — Cassini mission observation log
- [esa-mars-express-observations](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/esa-mars-express-observations) — ESA Mars Express observation log
- [nasa-eva-chronology](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/nasa-eva-chronology) — NASA EVA history

## Pipeline

Source code: [juliensimon/space-datasets](https://github.com/juliensimon/space-datasets)

## Support

If you find this dataset useful, please give it a ❤️ on the [dataset page](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/pds-planetary-missions) and share feedback in the Community tab! Also consider giving a ⭐️ to the [space-datasets](https://github.com/juliensimon/space-datasets) repo.

## Citation

```bibtex
@dataset{pds_planetary_missions,
  author = {Simon, Julien},
  title = {NASA PDS Planetary Missions Catalog},
  year = {2026},
  publisher = {Hugging Face},
  url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/pds-planetary-missions},
  note = {Based on NASA Planetary Data System (PDS) context catalog via the PDS Search API}
}
```

## License

[CC-BY-4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)