Heliospice

Query positions of spacecraft, planets, moons, and asteroids in the solar system

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?"