Implement Spice Meta Kernels for Better Management of Spice Kernels

[geoffreygarrett]

Description

The implementation of spice meta kernels will help in better management of spice kernels, making it easier to select and load individual kernels applicable to a particular mission phase or time span, as opposed to selecting and loading each individual kernel referenced in the meta-kernel.

Checklist

• Implementation of Spice Meta Kernels
• Unit Tests
• Documentation added to docs.tudat.space
• Modifications to the relevant changelogs

Additional Information [source]

• A meta-kernel is a specially-formatted listing of a set of kernels applicable to a particular mission phase or time span.
• For shorter missions, a single meta-kernel is provided, covering the entire data set. For longer missions, there is a series of meta-kernels, each one covering a defined time span.
• There may be multiple sets of meta-kernels based on other discriminators and multiple versions of a particular meta-kernel.
• The meta kernel(s) and mkinfo.txt are always found under the .../extras/mk/ folder of the archived SPICE data set.
• Users should read the mkinfo.txt file included in the meta-kernel folder for important information.