Mrd

What the mrd MCP server does

The mrd MCP server gives AI assistants access to typed specifications for spacecraft components across 24 categories, including reaction wheels, star trackers, propulsion, radios, antennas, structures, and ground stations. Its data layer contains more than 19,900 cited values from over 2,500 flight hardware products, alongside 26,000 facts extracted from more than 800 datasheets. Full text from over 1,600 datasheets is indexed for questions.

The mrd MCP server is intended for engineering searches and early trade studies. You can describe requirements in natural language, compare candidates, assemble a spacecraft bus, inspect product facts, or identify information that is not available. Values retain their units, operating conditions, source file, datasheet page, and confidence level. Missing information is reported rather than inferred.

How it works

The mrd MCP server exposes a hosted MCP endpoint at https://newspacemarket.com/mrd-connect/mcp. A local package, @newspacemarket/mrd-mcp, provides a stdio interface for editors and forwards requests to that hosted service. The same service also provides REST endpoints and an OpenAPI 3.1 document for integrations such as custom actions or agent toolkits.

Data is extracted from vendor datasheets, scanned document images, vendor product pages, and product descriptions. Unit conversions are performed in code, and validation checks whether a value's unit matches its property. Records include either machine-extracted confidence (L0) or human-verified confidence (L1).

Setup and configuration

For a hosted connection, add the MCP URL as a custom connector in an MCP-compatible client. For local stdio clients, add the following entry to the client's MCP configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mrd": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@newspacemarket/mrd-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

No authentication is needed for reading. An optional free key is available through the connection hub and increases rate limits five-fold. The repository also includes Python, JavaScript, and curl examples, while the live OpenAPI document is available at /mrd-connect/openapi.json.

Tools and capabilities

The mrd MCP server provides eight tools:

• match_components filters products against engineering requirements and groups results into candidates that pass, fail, or have missing data. It can also apply price and export-control filters.
• get_component_specs returns the typed specification layer for a category.
• build_budget calculates mass and steady-state power for a component stack, checks bus voltage, and identifies items that could not be counted.
• get_datasheet_digest returns product facts by section with page references and quoted source text.
• search_datasheet_facts compares one fact key across a category, with a page and quote for each row.
• ask_datasheet searches one or all category datasheets for question-related excerpts or exact terms.
• design_stack creates a spacecraft bus from a plain-language task and accepts fixed product IDs.
• find_data_gaps reports missing information for a product, company, or category and indicates whether it exists in extracted data, indexed text, or only from the vendor.

Limitations and notes

Coverage is not exhaustive. Products without machine-readable vendor information may be absent, and unpublished properties remain missing. Conditions such as idle, steady-state, and peak power are kept as separate records rather than combined. The repository contains a dated data snapshot, but live queries are newer when freshness matters.

Specifications are provided as-is and should be checked against the vendor datasheet before design commitment. The MCP bridge and examples use the MIT license; the included data uses CC BY 4.0 with attribution to NewSpace Market.