get_cartesian_coordinates

Astronomy.get_cartesian_coordinates(station=None)

Get the Cartesian coordinates of a DSN station, or a dictionary of all

:param station : 13 or ‘Venus’ or ‘DSS 13’ :type station : int or string

Returns

tuple or dict of tuples or None, Cartesian coordinates in meters

This creates a dictionary with the Cartesian coordinates in meters of the DSN stations using the ITRF1993 (assuming subreflector-fixed configuration). If a valid station ID is given, it returns the coordinates of that station. None is returned if the ID is invalid. If no ID is given, the entire dictionary is returned.

The entry for DSS 21 is a rough one for JPL.

Notes

For an explanation of the coordinate systems see http://dsnra.jpl.nasa.gov/Antennas/Antennas.html#anchor950381

Some other stations have been added.

An example to get a baseline length:

>>> x1,y1,z1 = get_cartesian_coordinates('DSS 24')
>>> x2,y2,z2 = get_cartesian_coordinates('DSS 13')
>>> print math.sqrt(math.pow(x2-x1,2) + math.pow(y2-y1,2)+math.pow(z2-z1,2))
12621.4825356

References

https://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsndocs/810-005/301/301K.pdf Table 2