MATISSE Multi-purpose Advanced Tool for Instruments for the Solar System Exploration

In planetary sciences, design, assemble and launch onboard instruments are only preliminary steps toward the final aim of converting data into scientific knowledge, as the real challenge is the data analysis and interpretation. Up to now data have been generally stored in "old style" archives, i.e. common ftp servers where the user can manually search for data browsing directories organized in a time order manner. However, as datasets to be stored and searched become particularly large, this latter task absorb a great part of the time, subtracting time to the real scientific work. In order to reduce the time spent to search and analyze data MATISSE (Multi-purpose Advanced Tool for Instruments for the Solar System Exploration), a new set of software tools developed together with the scientific teams of the instruments involved, is under development at ASDC (ASI Science Data Center), whose experience in space missions data management is well known (e.g., [1], [2], [3], [4]).