EXPLORE - Innovative Scientific Data Exploration and Exploitation Applications for Space Sciences

We present the EXPLORE Horizon 2020 Research & Innovation project and its first outcomes. EXPLORE's main objective is to develop and deploy a suite of scientific data applications (SDAs) to foster exploitation of scientific data from astrophysics and planetary space missions. Six SDAs will produce new scientific data products and offer new scientific services. Four of the applications will leverage data primarily from Gaia, developing tools to help understand the evolution of our galaxy, the 3D distribution of interstellar matter, and support the discovery, classification, and characterisation of stars. The other two applications will integrate data from a range of lunar missions to focus on characterisation of the Moon's surface and potential human landing sites. The SDAs will utilise state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence and visual analytics to enhance science return and discovery. In parallel, we built a small virtual platform (explore-platform.eu) that is used to develop, validate, and test each SDA. Later it could be offered as a service. The SDAs will be deployed, under open-source licences, on different cloud science platforms (e.g., ESA Datalabs and ESCAPE Science Analysis Platform) to stimulate uptake and sustainability. This open science project will help democratise space science exploration and exploitation. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation pro-gramme under grant agreement No 101004214.