A small package of useful tools for setting up and interfacing with NASA/NAIF's SPICE toolkit (via SpiceyPy)
Currently, the most useful tool included is make_Metakernel(), which accesses wget via a Python interface to automatically downloads the kernels required for a given spacecraft's trajectory, stores them in an appropriate directory structure, and then writes a metakernel containing symbolic links to all the downloaded kernels.
Basic usage to create a spacecraft Metakernel:
(1) From the installation directory, run:
>>> make_Metakernel.py
You will then be prompted for the target spacecraft name and the SPICE base directory:
- Enter names in plaintext, not with quote characters (e.g. ', ", >, ), }, ])
- If you wish to create a SPICE directory in the current directory, simply press enter during the second prompt
(2) From the installation directory, run:
>>> from make_Metakernel import *
>>> metakernel_filepath = make_Metakernel('spacecraft', basedir='/Your/Directory/Here')
Where 'spacecraft' is the target spacecraft as a string, and '/Your/Directory/Here' is the chosen base directory for SPICE (again, an empty string ('') will create the SPICE directory in your current location)
You can then check the metakernel location with:
>>> print(metakernel_filepath)
If a spacecraft you need is not currently supported by make_Metakernel(), you find some other bug with the code as is, or you have suggestions for useful features and/or interfaces for this code to provide, please feel free to raise an issue.