PDS_VERSION_ID          = PDS3
RECORD_TYPE             = STREAM

OBJECT                  = TEXT
   INTERCHANGE_FORMAT   = ASCII
   PUBLICATION_DATE     = 2011-01-15
   NOTE                 = "SPK Kernels Information"
END_OBJECT              = TEXT

END

=============================================================================
General Information About SPICE Spacecraft and Planet Kernels (SPK)
=============================================================================

   The purpose of the SP-kernel -- which stands for S(pacecraft) and
   P(lanet) Kernel -- is to allow ephemerides for any collection of
   solar system bodies, spacecraft or any other objects in 3D space to
   be combined under a common file format, and accessed by a common set
   of subroutines.

   The SPK files can be accessed and manipulated using the SPICE
   Toolkit APIs, calls to which can be integrated into user application
   programs. Information on the SPICE system toolkit (available for a
   variety of computer platforms) and information on how it can be
   obtained may be found in the GEOMETRY/GEOMINFO.TXT file within this data
   set.

   To use SP-kernels, a Leapsecond (LSK) is required. Also, to use
   SP-Kernels containing positions given relative to the non-inertial
   and project-defined frames, a Frame Definitions (FK) and Planetary
   Constants (PCK) files are required.

   Refer to the "spk.req" document provided with the toolkit to get
   more information on how to access SP-kernel data.


=============================================================================
Chandrayaan-1 SP-kernels Provided In This Data Set
=============================================================================

   The following Chandrayaan-1 SP-kernels are provided in this data set:

   -- Full Mission Chandrayaan-1 Spacecraft Trajectory SPK file:

   This is a full mission reference trajectory SPKs containing ephemeris over
   the course of the Chandrayaan-1 mission.
   
         CHAN1_SHORT_20081022_00.BSP
         
         This is a full-mission reference trajectory SPK for the Chandayaan-1
         mission. It was created by personnel at JHU/APL and JPL primarily
         from ranging data to which additional data from a full-mission
         ephemeris provided by ISRO was added to fill small gaps. The
         Mini-SAR mission spanned from November 2008 through August 2009;
         however, this instrument was not active during that entire time.
         Formal science data collection was divided into two seasons, one
         beginning February 15, 2009 and concluding on April 18, 2009. The
         second season began August 18, 2009 and ended on August 28, 2009.
         The Mini-SAR processing system uses this file in little-endian byte
         order format. For this archive, it is provided in big-endian format
         per PDS standards for binary SPICE kernels.
         
   -- Planetary SPK file:

         de421.bsp

         This SPK is contains the planetary ephemeris. It is a standard
         product provided by JPL/NAIF. It contains barycentric ephemeris
         data for the major bodies in the Solar System, including the Earth,
         the Moon and Pluto. de421 is the version of this product used in the
         Mini-SAR processing. The Mini-SAR processing system uses this file
         in little-endian byte order format. For this archive, it is provided
         in big-endian format per PDS standards for binary SPICE kernels.


=============================================================================
Kernel File Details
=============================================================================

   The most detailed description of the data in a SPK file is provided
   in meta-data included inside the description area of the file. This
   information can be extracted from the binary SPK file using the "brief",
   "commnt -r" and "spacit" utility programs provided with the NAIF Toolkit.

   These binary kernels were originally created in little-endian byte order
   and the Mini-RF POC uses them in that form. However, for this archive
   they have been converted to big-endian byte order as required by NAIF PDS
   node standards using the NAIF "bingo" utility program.


=============================================================================
Contacts
=============================================================================

For general information on SPICE, the SPICE library and on the NAIF toolkit:

   PDS Navigation and Ancillary Information Facility (NAIF),
   MAIL STOP 301-121
   Jet Propulsion Laboratory
   California Institute of Technology
   4800 Oak Grove Drive
   Pasadena, CA, 91109-8099
   818-354-3869
   WWW Site:  http://naif.jpl.nasa.gov
   Electronic mail address:  pds_operator@naif.jpl.nasa.gov

For information specific to this archive or the Chandrayaan-1/Mini-SAR
kernels:

   Mini-RF Payload Operations Center (POC)
   Mike Reid
   The Johns Hopkins University
   Applied Physics Laboratory
   11100 Johns Hopkins Road
   Laurel MD 20723
   Email: Mike.Reid@jhuapl.edu