Enable NASA PDS4 raster file format (Planetary Data System v4) for upcoming Moon to Mars missions

[thareUSGS]

The overall goal is to:

1. Allow for ArcGIS Pro to natively load the NASA PDS4 format (Planetary Data System v4). The PDS4 extension can have an extension of either *.xml or *.lblx

Business Case:

1. The PDS4 format has been supported in GDAL for several years. Thus, for ArcGIS Pro, support for PDS4 should simply be a matter of "turning on" the PDS4 format (already available in GDAL). This would be adding to the existing PDS (v3) and ISIS3 cube planetary formats already supported in GDAL/ArcGIS Pro. The enhancement should require little or no software development from Esri as the format is already supported in GDAL.

2. Why support this? One of our main goals is to help the public and researchers be able to use the planetary data we support within NASA's archive.  Many of our scientists already rely on ArcGIS Pro and native support for PDSv4 data would greatly benefit them. This is the reason we supported these format drivers for GDAL in the first place.

3. Beyond supporting our planetary science community, I will say there is looming commercial aspect to supporting these formats. Many "space" companies will also be using ArcGIS Pro for data analysis and processing. Having PDS4 support will be a boon for these users also.

[DebraBuczkowski]

Being able to ingest data from NASA's Planetary Data System (PDS) would be immensely valuable to all planetary scientists who use ArcPro.

[SharonPurdy]

The proposed functionality is necessary to support research and mapping of the Moon and Mars and would immensely benefit the ArcPro uses in the planetary community.