mcp

This MCP server provides a collection of aerospace-focused computational tools via two transport options: STDIO for local, developer-friendly usage and HTTP for web-based integrations supporting modern streamable-HTTP as well as legacy SSE (if you have an older client). The included tools cover celestial body ephemeris, orbital mechanics, DSN ground-station operations, solar system properties, time and unit conversions, and various coordinate transformation utilities. You can access the HTTP server to interact with the API over REST/streamable MCP, or use the STDIO server for low-latency, local calls via command line or programmatic stdin/stdout communication. If you’re targeting production or external clients, prefer the streamable-HTTP base URL; reserve the /sse endpoint for legacy clients that require SSE.

Prerequisites:

• .NET 9.0 SDK or runtime
• Docker (optional for containerized deployment)
• SPICE kernel data for solar system calculations

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/IO-Aerospace-software-engineering/mcp-server
cd mcp-server

2. Build the native .NET deployment

dotnet build

3. Prepare SPICE kernel data

• Create a kernels directory containing the required SPICE files, for example: kernels/ ├── de440s.bsp ├── latest_leapseconds.tls ├── pck00011.tpc ├── earth_latest_high_prec.bpc └── ...

4. Run the STDIO server (self-hosted, local usage)

• Provide the kernels path via CLI or environment variable. Examples:

# Using CLI flag
./Server.Studio -k /path/to/your/spice/kernels

# Using environment variable (Linux/macOS)
export IO_DATA_DIR="/path/to/your/spice/kernels"
./Server.Stdio

# Windows (PowerShell)
$env:IO_DATA_DIR="C:\path\to\your\spice\kernels"
./Server.Stdio.exe

5. Run the HTTP server (streamable-HTTP + optional SSE)

./Server.Http

Notes:

• If you used the Docker deployment in development, you can bring up services with docker-compose up as described in the Quick Start section.
• For production, ensure you point the servers to the correct kernel data paths and configure any required domain names in the production compose file or deployment script.

Tips and common issues:

• Ensure the SPICE kernel files exist at the configured kernels path; missing kernels will cause startup or calculation errors.
• For STDIO usage, the priority is CLI flag > IO_DATA_DIR environment variable. Use -k/--kernels to override the kernel path when launching Server.Stdio.
• The hosted HTTP endpoint at the base URL supports modern streamable-HTTP; the /sse endpoint is for backward compatibility with older clients.
• If you switch between STDIO and HTTP transports, keep in mind that some tools are exposed differently; consult the Tool Reference section in the README for exact method signatures.
• When running in containers, map the kernels path into the container and ensure proper file permissions for kernel data.