rust-spice

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

Intro

SPICE is An Observation Geometry System for Space Science Missions. Visit their website.

Requirements

Install CSPICE library for your platform.
In your folder /path/to/cspice/lib, rename the static libraries to match standards:
1. cspice.a -> libcspice.a
2. csupport.a -> libcsupport.a
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

Add the dependency rust-spice to your Cargo.toml:

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

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, 21.054373008357004, -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 documentation online, a complete guide details which functions are available. If yours is not, you can always use the unsafe API which contains all cspice functions.

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

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

unsafe {
    let kernel = CString::new("/path/to/metakernel.mk").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("TARGET_NAME").unwrap().into_raw();
    let frame_c = CString::new("FRAME_NAME").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.

License

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.