The NEOROCKS NEO physical properties database: present status and future perspectives

A major outcome of the Data Management activities of the EU funded NEOROCKS project (NEO Rapid Observation, Characterization and Key Simulations) is the development and the deployment of an advanced NEO physical properties database. Therefore, a data model derived from well-defined IVOA (International Virtual Observatory Alliance) standards, aiming at making the NEOROCKS database compliant with existing virtual observatory services, has been designed. This implies the ability to store, maintain, give access and regularly update all different levels of processing, from raw data to final products (e.g. size, rotation, spectral type). The implementation has been completed and the database is now integrated within the project Technical Web Portal, thus being available to the consortium partners. After a consolidation phase, the portal and database will be migrated within the Space Science Data Center of the Italian Space Agency (ASI-SSDC) in order to be hosted in a permenent infrastructure devoted to space-data management (https://www.ssdc.asi.it/) and made accessible also to external users. The ultimate goal is to provide the scientific community involved in NEO physical characterization with a facility able to support the scientific exploitation of their data and the long-term storage through an original data model targeted at maximizing data discovery in science fields related to the Solar System. By extending the maintenance and the evolution of the database - thanks to ASI-SSDC - well beyond the NEOROCKS project duration, one of the major goals of the EU H2020 Programme, i.e. starting R&D activities later to become European assets, is fulfilled at best.
The NEOROCKS database functions and tools are described in detail and a tradeoff analysis with other existing physical properties databases is carried out. Finally, its relevance within the framework of the tasks entrusted to ESA within the framework of the EU SSA Programme is discussed.

The NEOROCKS Team is composed also by: S. Anghel, M. Banaszkiewicz, S. Banchi, M. A. Barucci, F. Bernardi, A. Bertolucci, M. Birlan, B. Carry, A. Cellino, F. Calderini, F. Colas, J. De Léon, A. Del Vigna, A. Dell’Oro, A. Di Cecco, L. Dimare, M. Lazzarin, P. Fatka, S. Fornasier, E. Frattin, P. Frosini, M. Fulchignoni, R. Gabryszewski, J. Huntingford, T. Hromakina, S. Ieva, J.P. Kotlarz, F. La Forgia, J. Licandro, H. Medeiros, F. Merlin, J. Nomen Torres, F. Pina, M. Popescu, P. Pravec, A. Rozek, P. Scheirich, A. Sergeyev, A. Sonka, C. Snodgrass, G.B. Valsecchi, P. Wajer.