The PDS has developed a model and a tool for helping proposers estimate the costs involved in preparing data for archiving in the PDS. The Cost Analysis Tool is an Excel spreadsheet that implements the details of the model and gives estimates of effort required, in Full Time Equivalent (FTE) units.

Cost Analysis Model

The model implemented by the spreadsheet estimates the costs to a mission or instrument team for designing and delivering PDS-compliant data products. It does not include the costs incurred by the PDS.

Phase A-D contains Orientation, Archive Planning, Data Set Design, Volume Design, Data Products Process Design, and Data Validation Process Design.

Phase E contains Data Product Preparation, Data Set Production and Validation, Data Delivery Review, and Archive.

Phase A-D Costs

Phase A-D costs in FTEs, which can be called the “Handshaking” costs, are expressed as:

0.25 + number of instruments * B * C * E

where:

B

is the baseline cost for designing the archive format when done for a product that requires no changes to the PDS data model and done by a team very experienced in delivery to PDS (usually B = 0.25 FTE)

C

is the data Complexity factor, 1 for data consistent with the current PDS data model, 2 for data products which require significant modifications to the PDS data model as would be the case for a new instrument type or a new observation type

E

is the team Experience factor, 1 for a team that is very experienced in producing PDS-compliant data products, 3 for a team that is very inexperienced in producing PDS-compliant data products

0.25

is the fixed cost for production of the mission Data Management Plan

Note that different instruments in the same mission may have differing experience and complexity values.

Phase E Costs

Phase E costs in FTEs are expressed as:

number of instruments * K * V + M * D

where:

K

is the baseline or minimum cost to produce a small amount of data (e.g., K=0.2 FTE where a small amount is ~1 MB or less)

V

is the data Volume index, 1 for 1 MB of data, increasing by 1.5 per order of magnitude increase in total data volume up to 10 for 1 TB of data

M

is the cost to support one year of science Mission operations (M=0.2 FTE)

D

is the Duration of the science mission in years