[Spice_announce] Announcement: SPICE Programming Class

[Charles H. Acton]

2004 SPICE Programming Class

The Navigation and Ancillary Information Facility 
(NAIF) at JPL announces a "SPICE" Programming 
class will be held at a hotel near Pasadena, 
California on May 6-7, 2004.  SPICE is an 
ancillary information system that provides 
scientists and engineers access to spacecraft 
orbit, attitude and similar information needed to 
determine observation geometry used in planning 
and analyzing space science observations, and to 
conduct mission engineering planning and 
analysis.  Check  http://pds-naif.jpl.nasa.gov/ 
for further information about SPICE.

This class is immediately preceded by, and is 
considered an optional supplement to, a SPICE 
tutorials presentation class held earlier in the 
week.

The hands-on programming will be conducted using 
problems selected by the student from a suite of 
lessons prepared by the NAIF Team.  Each lesson 
will include the problem statement, some tips to 
get going, and the (or a) solution.  The problems 
and corresponding solutions will be offered in C, 
FORTRAN and Interactive Data Language (IDL). 
Problems involving remote sensing, in-situ 
measurements and event-finding will be offered in 
addition to exercises involving various basic 
SPICE operations.

Each student or student group must bring a laptop 
computer having an OS and compiler supported by 
NAIF (check 
ftp://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/naif/toolkit). 
Before coming to the class students will be 
responsible for having installed the SPICE 
Toolkit, an appropriate compiler or IDL package, 
and a suitable program development environment or 
editor.  Students must also have downloaded the 
programming lessons and the SPICE kernel files to 
be used in the lessons--to be provided later. 
(Internet connections will not be available.)

The class will assume the student is familiar 
with one of C, FORTRAN or IDL programming, and 
with basic math and geometry concepts.  It is 
sometimes helpful if two or three colleagues 
share a computer and work each problem together.

The class is open to all JPL and contractor 
personnel, and is also offered  to JPL/NASA 
colleagues-domestic and foreign-who are now 
participating, or may participate in the future, 
in any NASA space exploration endeavor where 
SPICE capabilities could be useful.  There are no 
ITAR restrictions on the material to be presented.

Pre-registration is required in order to ensure 
availability of sufficient class space and 
handouts.  Attendance may be limited to fit 
available space and/or to ensure availability of 
sufficient instructors. There is no charge for 
attending this class.

Draft schedule:
   Thu  May 6   1:00 - 5:00
   Fri    May 7   8:30 - 5:00  (Students may leave earlier as necessary.)

Please indicate your interest in this class by 
filling out and returning the form below no later 
than March 30.  Further announcements will be 
sent only to those who have responded by this 
time.  Please use a separate form for each 
potential applicant.  Please use the "other" form 
for the SPICE Tutorials class.

Firm commitments about attending will be required by April 16.

JPL/NAIF will confirm your registration by April 
20.  JPL/NAIF reserves the right to cancel the 
class by April 30 for any reason.

Please forward this announcement to any of your 
colleagues who might be interested in this class.

For further information contact Charles Acton:  charles.acton at jpl.nasa.gov.

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                                      SPICE Programming Class
                                                Notice of Interest
                                     Return no later than March 30, 2004
                                   Return to:  charles.acton at jpl.nasa.gov
                   Please use a separate form for each prospective registrant


   [   ]     I expect to attend the SPICE 
Programming Class on May 6 - 7, 2004.  I will 
reconfirm by April 16.

                   orŠ

   [   ]     I may attend the SPICE Programming 
Class but am not yet certain. I will decide by 
April 16.  Please keep me informed.  I understand 
acceptance is limited to space available.


Name:

E-mail:

Institution:

Project affiliation(s) (if any):

Programming language I expect to use:

    [   ]  C
    [   ]  FORTRAN
    [   ]  IDL

The operating system (name and version) on my laptop is:


The compiler (name and version) on my laptop is:


The programming subject(s) of most interest to me are:

    [   ]  Remote sensing
    [   ]  In-situ measurements
    [   ]  Event-finding  (e.g. occultation, 
transit, closest approach, max latitude)
    [   ]  Basic SPICE operations
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