Mars Interactive Exploration based on Reconstruction and Visual Analysis: The MINERVA Concept

MINERVA is a 3D GIS currently under development by JR, VRVis and EOX for a collaborative, holistic planetary science data infrastructure to allow members of different instrument teams to cooperate synergistically in virtual workspaces by sharing observation information, analysing and annotating the data. MINERVA is implementing a novel framework of interoperable and collaborative components based on an interactive 3D Viewer with GIS functionality, a database that maintains the knowledge about spatiotemporal data products, and a visual analytics platform that will help find new interconnections between the data coming from different instruments to discover new modes of scientific exploitation. MINERVA will be usable for the ExoMars Rover Mission (to be launched in 2020), which provides a heterogeneous set of scientific data captured by different instruments from the surface of the Red Planet. We will present the MINERVA concept, discuss various use cases and give selected details on representative ExoMars workflows and available & envisaged technical solutions.