Spacecraft ephemeris made easy — auto-managed SPICE kernels for heliophysics
HelioSPICE MCP server is a locally run integration for AI assistants that speak the Model Context Protocol. Spacecraft ephemeris made easy — auto-managed SPICE kernels for heliophysics.
Once HelioSPICE is connected, these are the calls the assistant has available:
get_ephemeris — Position/velocity — single time (inline) or timeseries (CSV)compute_distance — Distance between two bodiestransform_coordinates — Coordinate frame transformlist_spice_missions — Supported missionslist_coordinate_frames — Available frames with descriptionsmanage_kernels — Kernel cache managementxhelio-spice on PyPI is all you need. Most clients run it directly, so configuration is a few lines and a restart.
Among the developer tooling options, the useful question is rarely "what can it do" but "what does it cost you to run" — permissions, credentials, and how much of your context its toolset consumes. HelioSPICE's toolset — get_ephemeris, compute_distance, transform_coordinates and 3 more — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by huangzesen; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.
SyncDev reviews every entry in this directory against the project's own documentation before publishing, and revisits them as servers change.
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| get_ephemeris | Position/velocity — single time (inline) or timeseries (CSV) |
| compute_distance | Distance between two bodies |
| transform_coordinates | Coordinate frame transform |
| list_spice_missions | Supported missions |
| list_coordinate_frames | Available frames with descriptions |
| manage_kernels | Kernel cache management |
{
"mcpServers": {
"heliospice": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["xhelio-spice"]
}
}
}Add to claude_desktop_config.json, then restart Claude Desktop.
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