MoonDB was an online accessible, quality-controlled data system that synthesized analytical data acquired on lunar samples to make them accessible in a single data product so they can be mined and integrated into digital research data infrastructure, thus augmenting their value for future science.

MoonDB preserved and restored lunar sample data that have been scattered across the scientific literature, in online PDF documents, and in private files, but it also serves as a home for new data generated on samples allocated to a global community of researchers by the Curation and Analysis Planning Team for Extraterrestrial Materials (CAPTEM), so that these data can be made openly accessible in compliance with US federal mandates for open access to research results while being seamlessly integrated with the historical data.

The lunar sample data from MoonDB are now part of the Astromaterials Data System via the AstroMat Search application. To access the original MoonDB search interface, see http://search.moondb.org/ and the MoonDB API at http://api.moondb.org/.

Access the Lunar Geochron DB here http://lunar.geochron.org/geochronsearch.

Over the course of 5 years, data from approximately 1,500 publications that contain laboratory analyses for the Lunar, Antarctic Meteorite, Cosmic Dust, Genesis, Hayabusa, Stardust, and Microparticle Impact collections will be compiled into the AstroDB synthesis, together with a wide range of information pertaining to the provenance of the analytical measurements (e.g., analytical instrumentation, laboratory, sample preparation procedures, instrument calibration, data reduction) and to the quality of the data. Focus will initially be on geochemical, mineralogical, and geochronological data, but content will be extended later to include additional data types such as experimental petrology, images, and spectrography.

Content of the MoonDB database of lunar sample data, which has already been compiled over the past 4 years with funding from two NASA awards, will be integrated into AstroDB.

We encourage researchers to contribute their data, especially unpublished historical data, to AstroDB. Please contact us at info@astromat.org.