Welcome to SpiceyPy’s documentation!¶
Introduction¶
SpiceyPy is a python wrapper for the SPICE Toolkit. SPICE provides access and tools to interact with planetary and spacecraft ephemeris and ancillary engineering information. Please visit the NAIF website for more details about SPICE.
IMPORTANT: The code is provided “as is”, use at your own risk.
Citing SpiceyPy¶
If you are publishing work that uses SpiceyPy, please cite SpiceyPy and the SPICE toolkit. SpiceyPy can be cited using the JOSS DOI (https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.02050) or with the following:
Annex et al., (2020). SpiceyPy: a Pythonic Wrapper for the SPICE Toolkit. Journal of Open Source Software, 5(46), 2050, https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.02050
Instructions for how to cite the SPICE Toolkit are available on the NAIF website:
To cite information about SpiceyPy usage statistics, please cite my 2017 and or 2019 abstracts as appropriate below:
2017 abstract: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017LPICo1986.7081A/abstract.
2019 abstract: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2019LPICo2151.7043A/abstract.
Documentation Overview¶
This is the documentation for SpiceyPy. The documentation for each function in the wrapper is in large part copied from the “Abstract” and “Brief_I/O” sections of the corresponding CSPICE function documentation. Each wrapper function has a link back to the corresponding original CSPICE function documentation hosted at the NAIF website. For more in-depth information about SPICE, please visit the NAIF website or click here to view the entire CSPICE documentation.
The intent of the function doc-strings is to serve only as a quick reference to what the parameter’s expected types are for the purpose of getting started with the wrapper. As each function has a link to the CSPICE documentation for that function, more detailed explanations are deferred to the NAIF via those links.
Contents:
- Citing SpiceyPy
- Installation
- Common Issues
- How to install from source (for bleeding edge updates)
- Change Log
- [5.1.1] - 2022-07-30
- [5.1.0] - 2022-07-09
- [5.0.1] - 2022-03-23
- [5.0.0] - 2022-02-17
- [4.0.3] - 2021-11-14
- [4.0.2] - 2021-08-13
- [4.0.1] - 2021-05-31
- [4.0.0] - 2020-12-07
- [3.1.1] - 2020-05-25
- [3.1.0] - 2020-05-25
- [3.0.2] - 2020-02-19
- [3.0.1] - 2020-01-10
- [3.0.0] - 2020-01-09
- [2.3.2] - 2019-12-19
- [2.3.1] - 2019-10-18
- [2.3.0] - 2019-09-25
- [2.2.1] - 2019-08-19
- [2.2.0] - 2019-02-24
- [2.1.2] - 2018-08-17
- [2.1.1] - 2018-04-24
- [2.1.0] - 2017-11-09
- [2.0.0] - 2017-06-09
- [1.1.1] - 2017-04-23
- [1.1.0] - 2016-10-19
- [1.0.0] - 2016-03-27
- [0.7.0] - 2016-03-26
- [0.6.8] - 2016-03-07
- Cassini Position Example
- Cells Explained
- Exceptions in SpiceyPy
- Lessons
- Basics of SpiceyPy
- Remote Sensing Hands-On Lesson, using CASSINI
- Overview
- References
- Kernels Used
- SpiceyPy Modules Used
- Time Conversion (convtm)
- Obtaining Target States and Positions (getsta)
- Spacecraft Orientation and Reference Frames (xform)
- Computing Sub-s/c and Sub-solar Points on an Ellipsoid and a DSK (subpts)
- Intersecting Vectors with an Ellipsoid and a DSK (fovint)
- Geometric Event Finding Hands-On Lesson, using MEX
- In-situ Sensing Hands-On Lesson, using CASSINI
- Binary PCK Hands-On Lesson
- Other Stuff (Python)
- Overview
- References
- Kernels Used
- SpiceyPy Modules Used
- NAIF Documentation
- Text kernels
- Lesson 1: Kernel Management with the Kernel Subsystem
- Lesson 2: The Kernel Pool
- Lesson 3: Coordinate Conversions
- Lesson 4: Advanced Time Manipulation Routines
- Lesson 5: Error Handling
- Lesson 6: Windows, and Cells
- Lesson 7: Utility and Constants Routines
- SpiceyPy package