[Spice_announce] Message for posting to spice_announce

[Charles H. Acton]

                                                              Announcements
                                  New SPICE Generic Toolkit Available 
-  Version N0054
                                  New SPICE Mailing Lists for 
Announcements and Discussion
                                  News on the SPICE Website
                                  News on SPICE Tutorials
                                  News on SPICE Programming Lessons

N0054 Toolkit
-------------------
A new version of the generic SPICE Toolkit--N0054--is now available 
for general use.  It is offered in both ANSI FORTRAN 77 and ANSI C, 
and is available for a number of computer/OS/compiler programming 
environments.  A description of the new and revised contents of this 
version of the Toolkit is provided elsewhere (earlier) in the 
"spice_announce" archive.

The various implementations of this N0054 Toolkit are freely 
available from the NAIF server, using anonymous ftp:

      ftp://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/naif/toolkit/

Be sure to read the README instructions for downloading and 
installing the Toolkit.

This will be THE LAST VERSION supported for the VAX and 
Macintosh/MacOS9 environments.  Other environments may be dropped in 
the near future, while still others (new compilers) will be added.

A beta-test Interactive Data Language (IDL) interface to CSPICE is 
available for those wishing a preview of this product. Contact Ed 
Wright for info  (ewright at spice.jpl.nasa.gov).

This version of the generic SPICE Toolkit will be used for all future 
mission Toolkit deliveries made to flight project CM systems until 
the next generic Toolkit version is released.

The next generic Toolkit update has not yet been planned, but it is 
unlikely to occur any sooner than six months from now.


SPICE Mailing Lists
---------------------------
NAIF has created two new mail lists: one to be used by NAIF staff for 
announcements regarding SPICE (such as future Toolkit announcements) 
and one for use by the SPICE user community, for discussion and 
exchange of SPICE-related ideas and information, similar to a 
newsgroup.  Information about these lists and how to subscribe to 
them is found below.  We suggest you do subscribe to "spice_announce" 
if interested in getting future announcements about Toolkit releases, 
SPICE software bugs, Leapseconds kernel updates, and similar news.


SPICE Website
---------------------
A "full-service" SPICE website is under development and should be 
available sometime in February, 2003.  This will provide access to 
all public SPICE software, SPICE kernel files from operational and 
archived missions, SPICE tutorials, and a variety of related 
information.  When it becomes available it will be announced on the 
new "spice_announce" e-mail list described below.


SPICE Tutorials
---------------------
A substantial update to the SPICE tutorials (viewgraph packages) was 
prepared for a SPICE workshop presented in the JPL area on October 
28-29, 2002.  Further updates were felt desirable after this 
workshop; these are not quite finished.  When available an 
announcement will be posted to the "spice_announce" mail list.


SPICE Programming Lessons
------------------------------------------
A set of five programming lessons focused on SPICE were prepared for 
a SPICE workshop held at the European Space and Technology Center 
(ESTEC) in The Netherlands in September.  These are being updated 
(improved, we hope) as a result of that first use at ESTEC.  When 
available for general use an announcement will be posted to the 
"spice_announce" mail list.


Best wishes for an exciting and successful new year.  We look forward 
to providing SPICE products to many of you, and to working with those 
involved in active or new space mission operations and science teams.

- The NAIF Team


P.S.  If you'd like to have your name removed from the (rather old) 
mail list used for this announcement, just send a reply saying 
"Please remove" in the subject line.


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