Welcome to the Pacific Regional Planetary Data Center (PRPDC)
The PRPDC is hosted by the Hawaiʻi Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa. The PRPDC is one of the Regional Planetary Image Facilities (RPIF) around the world, archiving planetary data that serves the planetary research and education community throughout the Pacific. We strive to provide users of NASA planetary data with some of the latest information about on-going NASA missions, as well as access to unique or rare data sets and derived products that help with their interpretation.
Images of the Month -- 230 Great Images Now On-Line!
After years of fine effort, the Arizona State University RPIF has discontinued the production of a monthly selection of the best new planetary images. But from July 2018, Hawaiʻi's PRPDC has taken up this effort to provide the community with a selection of images. Click here to see our May 2020 selection, and our archive of 220 earlier images.
Over 115 CTX Digital Elevation Models of Mars!
Hawaiʻi's RPIF continues to place digital elevation models (DEMs) derived from CTX images of Mars. We currently have over 115 different DEMs on-line, along with .stl files and other information about the data. Click here to see our current selection, which includes impact craters, volcanoes and other landforms.
Rare or Unique PRPDC Documents
One of the goals of the PRPDC is to scan and place on-line a number of its rare or unique hard-copy holding. Where ever possible, we make these OCR (optical character recognition) compatible. For instance, thanks to Dr. Trevor Sorensen, who was the Lunar Mission Manager for the 1994 Clementine Mission to the Moon, the PRPDC has now acquired much of the original documentation for this mission, and we have over 2,700 pages of materials now on-line through our searchable data base. We also have several hundred pages describing site selection for the Apollo Moon landings available on-line. Other rare documents have also been scanned. Ultimately we will digitize all these materials and make them available on our web site, but for now they are just paper copies. There are some real gems here -- did you know, for instance, that there were plans for a second Clementine mission? Follow the following links to see what is available already:
Searchable set of Clementine mission documents
Rare planning documents from the Apollo missions.
Digitized rare planetary documents in our collection.
Archival Telescopic Spectra
Back in the 1970s and 1980s, many of the planetary researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi went to the Mauna Kea telescopes to collect spectra of the Moon, asteroids, and comets. We are starting to digitize some of their old plots. Click here to see the spectra of the asteroids and comets.
3-D Prints of Planetary Landscapes
The PRPDC has followed Brown University's RPIF's lead, and has started to produce planetary landscapes in stereolithography (.stl) format files for download and your use. You could also visit the Brown RPIF site for to see their data at (Brown RPIF's 3-D Prints). The PRPDC is producing .stl files for the CTX-derived Mars digital elevation models that we have on-line. In addition, there are the other .stl files you can also download.
PRPDC on ThinkTech Hawaiʻi
The PRPDC has teamed with a local technology television channel (ThinkTech Hawaiʻi) and recorded over 50 different 30-45 minute videos about various aspects of planetary exploration, studying the earth, and various NASA data sets. Click here to see our current list of videos available via YouTube.
Featured Planetary Data Set
Magellan Full-Resolution Images of Venus
Click here to go direct to our description of how to use the Planetary Data System (PDS) web sites at the U.S. Geological Survey (Flagstaff) and the University of Washington at St. Louis.
Featured Planetary Data Set
Curiosity Rover Images of Gale Crater, Mars
Click here to read our description on how to work with the University of Washington at St. Louis's Planetary Data System (PDS) Geosciences Node.
Lunar crater named after former PRPDC Director
On March 16th, 2018, in honor and rememberance of the PRPDC's founding Director, Dr. B. Ray Hawke, the International Astronomical Union-Planetary Nomenclature Committee approved the name "Hawke Crater". Please see our special page describing this crater.
Pacific Regional Planetary Data Center
HIGP/SOEST University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa
Pacific Ocean Science and Technology (POST) Building
Room 544
1680 East-West Rd
Honolulu, Hawaiʻi 96822
