The NAIF Node PDSMC Report April 2, 2009 Charles Acton

2 Spacecraft Planet Earth Sun Solar System Barycenter What is SPICE? Time Conversion Calculations Logs of Commands and Events Other and size/shape of planet and size/shape of Earth Sizes/shapes Instrument reference frame Antenna reference frame EME 2000 reference frame (J2000) Reference frames Orientation of spacecraft Orientations Orientation Relative positions of spacecraft and solar system bodies Positions Pointing of Instrument field-of-view Pointing The Solar System

3 The “Five Faces of NAIF” Core SPICE System Development SPICE Deployment and Operations (JPL planetary missions) NAIF Node of the PDS Development Flight OperationsArchive Operations 32% 15% 23%24% NASA funded support for ESA’s MEX, VEX and Rosetta Missions 6% AMMOS Funding of some SPICE extensions, bug fixes and porting

4 Use of SPICE in Mission Operations Mission funded NAIF support No funded NAIF support Did not use SPICE Use of SPICE is TBD

5 SPICE Archive Operations (To be) Archived at NAIF (To be) Archived elsewhere SPICE data not archived No SPICE data produced No SPICE archiving planned Archive situation TBD

6 Examples of “Recent” Accomplishments IDL © interface to SPICE MATLAB © interface to SPICE “Geometry finder” subsystem Alpha-test version of new shape models: –tessellated plate model –digital elevation model Ephemeris comparison tool Reference frames comparison tool All documentation is hyperlinked All mission SPICE data are promptly archived “FURNSH” kernels provide convenient aggregations of related SPICE data files SPICE Archiving Guide and allied tools produced and distributed Improvements to training materials –Programming lessons –Tutorials SPICE training classes held in U.S., Europe and India Numerous website improvements, including Google access to all documents and “subroutines” Core SPICE Development NAIF Node

7 Examples of Planned Work Python and Java interfaces to SPICE Extend the “geometry finder” subsystem Complete the shape model subsystem Ephemeris selection aide Frame construction and visualization tool Comet/asteroid ephemeris system improvements All mission SPICE data archived on time More SPICE training materials More SPICE training classes –Possibly an advanced class, too Website improvements Participate in PDS2010 Participate in IPDA? Resolve issues pertaining to involvement with foreign and non-PSD mission support Establish a viable node backup arrangement Core SPICE Development* NAIF Node *Some involve AMMOS co-funding

8 How SPICE Gets Used by PDS Nodes Computation of Geometry Data for addition to Archived Science Data Generation of Customer-requested Custom Geometry Files for a mission for an instrument Old Ancillary Data Restoration Validation of Data During Peer Reviews Possible further use of SPICE On-the-fly Geometry Calculations in support of Data Product Searches (“geometry engine?”) NAIF-Built SPICE Tools Supporting Data Analysis Use of Toolkit Software in Node-specific Tools More/better ( time… kind of )

9 NAIF’s Perception of Customer’s Opinions SPICE works quite well –Used by all NASA planetary missions –Adopted by many non- planetary missions –Adopted by all major foreign space agencies –Hundreds of users –Very few bugs/errors –Very few complaints Principal complaints –AIF is slow to provide: »new language interfaces »new supported platforms »new capabilities NAIF does pretty well –SPICE data archives are on time, correct, complete, and well documented –Customer support is excellent –Lots of use of the web pages and NAIF server –Very few complaints Principal complaints –Substantial learning curve –With so much documentation, it’s hard to know what to look at –Need to offer more classes –Can be hard to select needed data file(s) »(This applies more to mission operations data than to archived data) Core SPICE Development NAIF Node Based in part on customer s and face-to-face discussions

10 Toolkit Download Metrics N61: /4/06 - 2/25/08 –Fortran: 600 –C: 1162 –IDL: 483 –MATLAB: n/a N62: 2734 (up 21% over N61) 3/5/08 - 3/15/09 – Fortran: 673 –C: 1200 –IDL: 383 –MATLAB: 478

11 NAIF’s View of Its Challenges Our work lists are long and getting longer Maintaining all we offer is very time consuming –lots of code –lots of languages –lots of platforms –lots of documents and will become more so as we continue to add new capabilities, new languages and new platforms. Some non-JPL NASA projects are unprepared to produce good and complete SPICE data sets The current central catalog interface to archived SPICE data does not work well Preparing for and conducting training classes takes a great deal of effort–principally because SPICE continues to evolve Helping users takes a good deal of time, especially for those who are neophytes or are in a hurry If/when/how to deal with foreign planetary missions remains largely a mystery Need to finish ancillary data restorations Core SPICE Development NAIF Node In addition to the issues noted on the previous chart…

12 Questions for PDSMC - 1 What problems have you discerned, or heard about? –regarding Core SPICE Development –regarding NAIF Node Operations Are SPICE Development and NAIF Node Operations appropriately integrated into the PDS enterprise? Where might improvements be made? What are your recommendations for modification to NAIF’s plans for future work*? –regarding Core SPICE Development? –regarding NAIF Node Operations? * NAIF can provide more details on planned work to anyone interested in this

13 Questions for PDSMC - 2 Peer review question –NAIF insists on “identical” data set organization, contents and quality for all SPICE archives –Most archived SPICE data sets are submitted by NAIF as “not peer reviewed” –Based on the successful pipeline peer review for the MGS SPICE data set, and the successful peer review under SBN cognizance of the Stardust and Deep Impact SPICE data sets, can NAIF declare all submitted data sets as peer reviewed? »The data sets in question are Clementine, Cassini, Deep Space-1, MERs, Messenger, MRO, Odyssey and Viking Orbiter Should “SPICE” become THE (required) NASA standard for ancillary data from planetary missions? –If “no”, and in any case, if mission X proposes to archive some other form of ancillary data, what is to be done, and by whom?

Questions for NASA

15 NAIF Challenges Beyond PDS The use of SPICE has grown beyond the scope of our funding –Increasing requests for help, but no funding/staff for this support »PSD missions, such as the U.S. Chandrayaan-1 instruments »Non-PSD missions, such as WISE, Kepler, LRO/LCROSS »Foreign missions, such as SMART-1, Planet-C (JAXA), Beppi Colombo (ESA), GRUNT (RSA) and Chandrayaan (ISRO) »Engineering, such as navigation and mission design »Deep Space Network »Technology applications (e.g. optical com) »E/PO, to support visualizations

16 The SPICE Challenge - 1 “Doing SPICE” is a bit harder than falling off a log!

17 The SPICE Challenge - 2 There are three phases of “doing SPICE” #1: Producing SPICE files for use during mission operations #2: Producing a high quality SPICE archive #3: Consuming SPICE files in support of science or engineering activities In “the early days” only NAIF would do #1 and #2 –Thus our training efforts focused on #3 In recent years the addition of planetary mission operations centers (APL, GSFC, Ames), and the spread of SPICE use beyond planetary missions and beyond NASA, has increased requests for NAIF support for all three items.

18 The SPICE Challenge - 3 NAIF has substantially addressed #2 for NASA’s planetary missions –But does not cover other missions except for MEX, VEX and Rosetta Helping end users with #3 will be a never-ending effort, especially as more capabilities become available and as new users come along –Improved training materials –More training classes –? Better navigation through NAIF resources –? More/better “getting started” information –? More tools –? More trained experts that can help new users How to deal with #1 when NAIF is not the producer is a question –Producing and validating quality SPICE kernels requires real knowledge and effort –Some projects pay insufficient attention to this activity –When NAIF is not the kernels producer, generally NAIF has no resources to help »Neither legal authority nor staff

19 NAIF is at a Crossroads Strengthen NAIF and SPICE to robustly serve those who wish to use it, with NASA help in arranging appropriate support? Restrict NAIF and SPICE to serve just those who are currently purchasing these services, or for whom the services have been purchased? ?

20 Questions for NASA - 1 What, if anything, should NAIF do to help “outside” entities learn to to produce and to use SPICE ancillary data? –NASA PSD missions operated at other than JPL? »MESSENGER, New Horizons, … (MESS and NH are actually in good shape, but there could be others in the future that won’t benefit from an in-house SPICE expert) –NASA non-PSD missions? »Kepler, WISE, LRO*, LCROSS*, LADEE, … (Note: LRO and LCROSS will eventually become PSD/PDS missions) – Foreign planetary missions »BeppiColombo, Planet-C, Grunt, ExoMars, … –Foreign non-planetary missions »Planck, some TBD JAXA missions,… –And more »Deep Space Network, optical communications technology experiments, U.S. military, …

21 What, if any, SPICE data from foreign missions should be archived at the NAIF Node of the PDS? –Why should it be archived at NAIF? »Why duplicate what another nation/agency is doing? »How could NAIF claim to provide expert advice about ancillary data from a mission where we had no involvement? »What if those ancillary/SPICE data are of very poor quality? –NAIF’s current position is to not do such archiving except where NAIF has a prior contract with NASA to do so (ESA’s MEX, VEX and Rosetta missions) –Consider… »What do/would those foreign space agencies want done? »What about the IPDA; will it provide access to SPICE data archived by other agencies? (What ancillary data standards will IPDA adopt, if any?) Questions for NASA - 2

22 What posture should NAIF take if/when the IPDA takes up the question of ancillary data standards? –Promote and help implement use of SPICE? »To what extent? »NASA needs to provide support consistent with whatever are the its directives –Pull SPICE back to being just a NASA standard? »Then NAIF likely needs to build translators, interfaces and validation checks to whatever IPDA does pick as its ancillary data standard Should NAIF promote SPICE internationally independent of the IPDA? –If IPDA is not able or not willing to, or cannot timely address ancillary data standards, tools and processes –When/how make this decision? –Need NASA support consistent with whatever are the its directives Questions for NASA - 3

23 What outreach activities should NAIF undertake, if any? –Information/Help desk at major meetings? »DPS, LPSC, AGU, EGU, etc. –Presentations (poster or paper) at major meetings? »DPS, LPSC, AGU, EGU, SpaceOps, ISPRS, etc. –Offer SPICE training at new venues? »COSPAR Capacity Building Workshops, International Space University, intro class at XX university specifically for university students, etc. –Your suggestions? Questions for NASA - 4