Hands-on session on SPICE.

Exercice 2.

You want to calculate the position of Mars Express with respect to the Earth in the J2000 frame, in April 17th, 2005, 12:00:00. Identify the kernels you need, and download them.

Solution.

You need:

1. The leapseconds kernel to convert from UTC to ET.
2. de414.bsp, in order to know the position of Mars and the Earth with respect to J2000.
3. A SPK kernel with ephemeris for Mars Express for the given time. The needed kernel is ORMM__050401000000_00122.BSP.

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