Heliospice

Query spacecraft and planetary ephemeris data using SPICE kernels.

Setup

pip install heliospice

What You Can Query

Spacecraft (36+): Parker Solar Probe, Solar Orbiter, Juno, Cassini, Voyager 1/2, Mars 2020, MRO, New Horizons, Europa Clipper, Psyche, BepiColombo, JUICE, Lucy, Galileo, Dawn, MESSENGER, and more...

Planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto

Moons: Moon, Titan, Europa, Ganymede, Io, Phobos, Deimos, and many more

Other: Sun, asteroids, comets, Solar System Barycenter

Tools

• get_spacecraft_ephemeris — Position at single time or timeseries (with optional velocity)
• compute_distance — Distance between two bodies over time range (min/max/mean, closest approach)
• transform_coordinates — Transform vectors between coordinate frames (RTN, J2000, ECLIPJ2000, etc.)
• list_spice_missions — List all supported spacecraft
• list_coordinate_frames — List available coordinate frames
• manage_kernels — Check status, download, load, or purge kernel cache

Examples

• "Where is Parker Solar Probe right now?"
• "What's Earth's distance from the Sun?"
• "Show me Juno's trajectory for January 2024"
• "When did Mars get closest to Jupiter in 2024?"
• "Convert this RTN vector to J2000 frame"
• "What's the current Moon position?"