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Unmanned Spaceflight.com _ Venus Express _ Finding Orbit details for Express matching when image taken.

Posted by: ncc1701d May 16 2015, 11:43 PM

Hello,
I was researching the Venus Express data archives found here:

ftp://psa.esac.esa.int/pub/mirror/VENUS-EXPRESS/VIRTIS/

I was hoping to find the matching orbit information for Venus Express to match when the image was taken like what you see below for Mars Express and like I have seen in other data for other missions.

---- Property: M94_ORBIT ----
ORBIT_NUMBER=1587
ASCENDING_NODE_LONGITUDE=195.21
ORBITAL_ECCENTRICITY=0.566
ORBITAL_INCLINATION=86.61
PERIAPSIS_ARGUMENT_ANGLE=80.85
PERIAPSIS_TIME='2005-04-12T03:21:06.000Z'
PERIAPSIS_ALTITUDE=327.01
ORBITAL_SEMIMAJOR_AXIS=8534.87
SPACECRAFT_SOLAR_DISTANCE=2.15709e+08
SPACECRAFT_CLOCK_START_COUNT='1/0061356929.57306'
SPACECRAFT_CLOCK_STOP_COUNT='1/0061359006.07514'
IMAGE_TIME='2005-04-12T03:39:11.491Z'
START_TIME='2005-04-12T03:39:11.489Z'
STOP_TIME='2005-04-12T03:39:11.494Z'
SPACECRAFT_POINTING_MODE='ACROSSTRACK'
RIGHT_ASCENSION=-1e+32
DECLINATION=-1e+32
OFFSET_ANGLE=-0.82
SPACECRAFT_ORIENTATION=(0.0, 1.0, 0.0)

the Venus Express data doesnt include this information for the images it is taking.
Does anyone know if Venus express includes this data anywhere for its images?

My research in the Express archives files mainly only reveals the orbit number, but not where Venus Express was along its orbit or details about the orbit it was on like inclinations etc.
Maybe ESA did things differently? Opinions?
thanks

Posted by: mcaplinger May 17 2015, 12:06 AM

I can't access the link you posted but if there's time information then you should be able to get all the geometry from the SPICE kernels.

ftp://ssols01.esac.esa.int/pub/data/SPICE/VEX/kernels/

Posted by: ncc1701d May 17 2015, 12:51 AM

Thank you. That helped.

Posted by: JohnVV May 21 2015, 04:36 AM

using the spice kernels can be "fun"
the about spice
http://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/naif/aboutspice.html

have a read through the tutorials
http://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/naif/tutorials.html

depending on your coding skills and preferred language
you will need the toolkit
http://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/naif/toolkit.html
C
FORTRAN
IDL
MATLAB ( or the gpl'ed clone Octave )

the c version is used in Celestia 1.6 and the SVN pull 1.7