HelioSPICE
This wraps NASA's SPICE ephemeris toolkit for heliophysics missions, handling kernel downloads and caching automatically. You get position, velocity, and trajectory queries for spacecraft like Parker Solar Probe, Solar Orbiter, and Voyager through get_ephemeris, plus coordinate transforms between frames like ECLIPJ2000, GSE, and RTN. It returns structured data as Python dicts or pandas DataFrames with distance in AU and velocity vectors. Reach for this when you need accurate spacecraft positions for mission planning or analysis without manually managing NAIF kernel files. The MCP layer exposes compute_distance for relative positioning and manage_kernels for cache control.
- tools
- 6
- transport
- STDIO
- last updated
- Mar 10, 2026
Tools
6 toolsPublic tool metadata for what this MCP can expose to an agent.
get_ephemerisPosition/velocity — single time (inline) or timeseries (CSV)
Position/velocity — single time (inline) or timeseries (CSV)
No parameter schema in public metadata yet.
compute_distanceDistance between two bodies
Distance between two bodies
No parameter schema in public metadata yet.
transform_coordinatesCoordinate frame transform
Coordinate frame transform
No parameter schema in public metadata yet.
list_spice_missionsSupported missions
Supported missions
No parameter schema in public metadata yet.
list_coordinate_framesAvailable frames with descriptions
Available frames with descriptions
No parameter schema in public metadata yet.
manage_kernelsKernel cache management
Kernel cache management
No parameter schema in public metadata yet.
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xhelio-spice
Spacecraft ephemeris made easy — auto-managed SPICE kernels for heliophysics missions.
xhelio-spice wraps SpiceyPy with automatic kernel download, caching, and loading. Ask for a spacecraft position and xhelio-spice handles the rest: downloading the right NAIF kernels, loading them in the correct order, and returning results as Python dicts or pandas DataFrames.
Installation
pip install xhelio-spice
For MCP server support (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, etc.):
pip install xhelio-spice[mcp]
Quick Start
from xhelio_spice import get_position, get_trajectory
# Where is Parker Solar Probe right now?
pos = get_position("PSP", observer="SUN", time="2024-01-15", frame="ECLIPJ2000")
print(f"PSP is {pos['r_au']:.3f} AU from the Sun")
# Get a month of trajectory data as a DataFrame
df = get_trajectory(
"PSP", observer="SUN",
time_start="2024-01-01", time_end="2024-01-31",
step="1h", frame="ECLIPJ2000",
)
print(df[["r_au"]].describe())
Details
- Repository
- github.com/huangzesen/heliospice
- Package
heliospice- Transport
- STDIO
- Registry
- MCP registry, active