Main principles used for building up a data bank for the long-term storage and retrieval of scientific space data

Methodological, technical, and practical organizational problems are considered of constructing a long term data bank. Data processing flowcharts are presented which are based on an analysis of the tasks which the data bank must fulfill, an estimate of the existing and predicted data flows in the processing center, and the selection of the data storage media and the forms in which the data are presented. Questions related to the use of standard and special hardware and software in the data bank are discussed. Reasons are presented for the adopted structure of the document-fact type information retrieval system which permits the mechanization and automation of various stages in the retrieval and selection of the data.