Crate spice

WOW! The complete NASA/NAIF Spice toolkit is actually usable on Rust.

Requirements

1. Install CSPICE library for your platform.
2. In your folder /path/to/cspice/lib, rename the static libraries to match standards:
   1. cspice.a -> libcspice.a
   2. csupport.a -> libcsupport.a
3. Tell Cargo where to look for the CSPICE library. This is done by adding some lines to $HOME/.cargo/config.toml. If the file doesn’t exist, create it (read Configuration doc). You need to write:

[target.YOUR_PLATFORM.cspice]
rustc-link-lib = ["cspice"]
rustc-link-search = ["/path/to/cspice/lib"]
rustc-cdylib-link-arg = ["-I/path/to/cspice/include"]

replace YOUR_PLATFORM by either:

• for linux: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
• for mac: x86_64-apple-darwin
• for windows: x86_64-pc-windows-msvc

and replace /path/to/cspice with the absolute path to your CSPICE installation.

Usage

Simply add the following to your Cargo.toml file:

[dependencies]
rust-spice = "*" // replace * by the latest version of the crate

Rust layered Spice functions of rust-spice are grouped in the root module spice:: and all functions from the FFI are grouped in spice::c::.

You can find a guide for the Rust interface here.

rust-spice in action

A nice and idiomatic interface to Spice,

use spice;

let mut kernel = spice::furnsh("rsc/krn/hera_study_PO_EMA_2024.tm");

let et = spice::str2et("2027-MAR-23 16:00:00");
let (position, light_time) = spice::spkpos("DIMORPHOS", et, "J2000", "NONE", "SUN");

// position -> 18.62640405424448, 21.54373008357003, -7.136291402940499
// light time -> 0.00009674257074746383

spice::unload("rsc/krn/hera_study_PO_EMA_2024.tm");

You can look for some inspirations in the tests.

In development

Developing an idiomatic interface for Spice in Rust takes time, and not all functions are implemented yet. In the module core, you will find a guide with the list of available functions. If yours is not, you can always use the unsafe API which contains all cspice functions.

For instance, with the unsafe API, the short example above would be,

use spice;
use std::ffi::CString;

unsafe {
    let kernel = CString::new("rsc/krn/hera_study_PO_EMA_2024.tm").unwrap().into_raw();
    spice::c::furnsh_c(kernel);

    let mut ephemeris_time = 0.0;
    let date = CString::new("2027-MAR-23 16:00:00").unwrap().into_raw();
    spice::c::str2et_c(date, &mut ephemeris_time);

    let target_c = CString::new("DIMORPHOS").unwrap().into_raw();
    let frame_c = CString::new("J2000").unwrap().into_raw();
    let abcorr_c = CString::new("NONE").unwrap().into_raw();
    let observer_c = CString::new("SUN").unwrap().into_raw();
    let mut light_time = 0.0;
    let mut position = [0.0, 0.0, 0.0];
    spice::c::spkpos_c(
        target_c,
        ephemeris_time,
        frame_c,
        abcorr_c,
        observer_c,
        &mut position[0],
        &mut light_time,
    );

    spice::c::unload_c(kernel);
}

Much less friendly.. yet it is available. I would love some help in order to complete the idiomatic development. You can raise an issue or propose a pull request for the implementation of a specific function.

Re-exports

pub use crate::core::*;

Modules

c	Complete NASA/NAIF C SPICE binded functions, very unsafe.
core	An idiomatic interface in Rust to CSPICE.

Macros

cstr	Convert String to *mut i8.
fcstr	Get String from *mut i8.
get_scalar	General solution to get a value that has been updated after having sent its pointer.
get_vec_arr	Get a vector of array from the pointer to the array.
init_scalar	General solution to initialize a value to be sent as a pointer.
mptr	Pointer to expression.
ptr_vec_arr	Initialize a vector of array to be sent as a pointer.

Constants

VERSION

The string version of kalast.