Abstract:
SPICE1 is the de facto international standard for determining the geometric conditions–parameters such as altitude, lighting angles, and LAT/LON coverage of an instrument footprint–pertaining to scientific observations acquired by in-struments on board robotic spacecraft. This system, comprised of data and allied software, is used for plan-ning science observations and for analyzing the data returned from those observations. Use of SPICE is not a NASA requirement but is recommended by NASA's Planetary Data System and by the International Plane-tary Data Alliance. Owing in part to its reliability, sta-bility, portability and user support, the use of SPICE has spread to many national space agencies, including those of the U.S., Europe (ESA), Japan, Russia and India. SPICE has been in use since the Magellan mis-sion to Venus and so has many well-known capabili-ties. But the NAIF2 Team responsible for implementing SPICE continues to add new features; this presentation describes a number of these.
