nasa

This NASA MCP server exposes a set of tools that allow you to access NASA public APIs via the Model Context Protocol (MCP). The server provides utilities to fetch Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD), search NASA images and media, retrieve Mars rover photos, obtain near-Earth object (NEO) data, and fetch Earth imagery. Integrated with MCP clients, you can ask natural language questions and the MCP client will route them to the appropriate tool. For example, you can request the APOD for today, search Martian rover photos, check which asteroids are near Earth today, or request satellite imagery for specific coordinates.

To use the tools, ensure your MCP client is configured to communicate with the NASA MCP server (in this project, the server name is nasa). The server expects your NASA API key to be provided via environment variable NASA_API_KEY. When configuring clients like Claude Desktop, you can provide the NASA_API_KEY in the environment section, and use the nasa server to handle queries through the available commands.

Prerequisites:

• Node.js v14+ installed on your machine
• npm (or yarn) available
• NASA API key (free) from https://api.nasa.gov/

Installation steps:

1. Clone or download the repository
2. Install dependencies

   npm install
   

3. Provide your NASA API key as an environment variable
   • Linux/macOS:

     export NASA_API_KEY="your_key_here"
     

   • Windows (CMD):

     set NASA_API_KEY=your_key_here
     

   • Windows (PowerShell):

     $env:NASA_API_KEY="your_key_here"
     

4. Run the server
   • Local run (development):

     node index.js
     

   • Global installation (optional):

     npm install -g .
     

     Then start via:

     nasa-mcp-server
     

Tips and common issues:

• Ensure NASA_API_KEY is set in the environment where the MCP server runs; the server will fail to fetch data without a valid key.
• API rate limits: NASA free API keys have usage limits; if you hit the limit, wait or rotate keys.
• If testing with MCP clients, you can wire the nasa server in your MCP client configuration (example in Claude Desktop) by specifying the command and environment as shown in the README example.
• When running locally, verify that index.js is in the project root or update the args in mcp_config to point to the correct entry file.
• Network connectivity and firewall rules can affect access to NASA endpoints; ensure outbound HTTP requests are allowed.