THE COMPLEXITY OF PROBLEMS IN SMALL BODY RESEARCH HAS GROWN EXPONENTIALLY OVER THE LAST DECADES. DEALING WITH THESE PROBLEMS REQUIRES NOT ONLY POWERFUL COMPUTATIONAL FACILITIES BUT ALSO SOFTWARE TOOLS TO ANALYZE THESE DATA SETS IN THE MOST EFFICIENT WAY. FOR DECADES PLANETARY ASTRONOMERS WERE REQUIRED TO PRODUCE THEIR OWN SOFTWARE TOOLS DESPITE A LACK OF PROPER TRAINING IN CODING. AS A RESULT EFFORTS TO SOLVE THE SAME PROBLEM HAVE BEEN DUPLICATED MULTIPLE TIMES IN A VARIETY OF PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES USUALLY WITHOUT PROPER TESTING OR DOCUMENTATION. WHILE STUDENTS AND YOUNG RESEARCHERS TEND TO HAVE ENJOYED A MORE COMPREHENSIVE CODING TRAINING THEY OFTEN HAVE TO REPLICATE AND MIGRATE ALREADY EXISTING ROUTINES IN ORDER TO USE THEM FOR THEIR OWN WORK. HENCE THE LACK OF A MAINTAINED AND WELL-TESTED OPEN-SOURCE CODE BASE FOR PLANETARY ASTRONOMY REDUCES THE PRODUCTIVITY OF ESPECIALLY YOUNG RESEARCHERS. WE PROPOSE THE IMPLEMENTATION OF AN OPEN-SOURCE PYTHON SOFTWARE PACKAGE FOR PLANETARY ASTRONOMY DESIGNED FOR THE NEEDS OF ASTEROID AND COMET RESEARCHERS. THIS PACKAGE WILL PROVIDE AMONG OTHERS: OBSERVATION PLANNING AND DESIGN TOOLS; PHOTOMETRIC PHASE CURVE ROTATIONAL LIGHTCURVE AND ASTEROID/COMET THERMAL MODELS AND ANALYSIS TOOLS; DUST AND GAS ACTIVITY MODELS; UTILITIES FOR THE SPECTRAL AND SPECTROPHOTOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF SMALL BODIES AND ROUTINES SUPPORTING ORBIT FITTING AND INTEGRATION IMAGE AND DATA ANALYSIS. THESE FEATURES HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED IN A SURVEY WITHIN THE SMALL BODY COMMUNITY AND ADDITIONAL FEATURES WILL BE ADDED IN CLOSE COLLABORATION WITH THE COMMUNITY. THE PUBLISHED CODE WILL BE WELL TESTED DOCUMENTED AND EASY TO USE. THIS PYTHON SOFTWARE PACKAGE FOCUSED ON SMALL BODY RESEARCH - SBPY - WILL BE DEVELOPED BY AND FOR PLANETARY ASTRONOMERS IN COLLABORATION WITH THE COMMUNITY. OUR TEAM CONSISTS OF MEMBERS OF THE ASTEROID AND COMET COMMUNITIES WHO ARE ALSO SEASONED SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS. WE WILL IMPLEMENT THIS PACKAGE IN PYTHON THE BY FAR MOST POPULAR PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE AMONG PLANETARY SCIENTISTS AND ASTRONOMERS. SBPY WILL COMBINE THE FUNCTIONALITY OF EXISTING METHODS AND SOFTWARE TOOLS IN A WELL-TESTED AND DOCUMENTED CODE SUITE THAT WILL BE EASY TO USE BY THE COMMUNITY. ALL METHODS USED IN SBPY HAVE BEEN USED IN PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS. WE WILL PUBLISH OUR CODE AS AN ASTROPY AFFILIATED PACKAGE THAT BUILDS UPON EXISTING ASTROPY FUNCTIONALITY AND MEETS THE HIGH REQUIREMENTS OF THE ASTROPY COMMUNITY. FUNCTIONALITY THAT IS RELEVANT TO OTHER ASTROPY AFFILIATED PACKAGES WILL BE ADDED THERE AS APPROPRIATE. SBPY WILL INCLUDE A UNIQUE REFERENCE TRACKING SYSTEM BUILDING A BIBLIOGRAPHY IN THE BACKGROUND DURING USE. CODE DEVELOPED AS PART OF THIS PROJECT WILL BE AVAILABLE TO THE COMMUNITY AT ANY STAGE DURING ITS DEVELOPMENT THROUGH A GITHUB REPOSITORY ENABLING TESTING AND CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE COMMUNITY. THE FINAL PRODUCT WILL BE HOSTED ON NASA PLANETARY SCIENCE DIVISION'S GITHUB SITE. IN ORDER TO DISSEMINATE THE PACKAGE AND ITS USE WE WILL PROVIDE EXAMPLE COOKBOOKS WORKSHOPS AND HACKATHONS FOR INSTANCE AT MEETINGS OF THE DIVISION FOR PLANETARY SCIENCES WHICH WILL ALSO ENABLE US TO STAY IN CLOSE CONTACT WITH THE COMMUNITY. THIS PROJECT IS RELEVANT TO NASA ROSES-2017 PDART AS IT PROPOSES TO PRODUCE A SOFTWARE TOOLKIT THAT WILL FACILITATE THE USE OF EXISTING AND FUTURE DATA SETS AS WELL AS ENABLE AND ENHANCE CURRENT AND FUTURE SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS IN THE FIELD OF PLANETARY ASTRONOMY. OUR GOAL IS TO CREATE A CORE LIBRARY THAT WILL SERVE AS THE GOLD STANDARD AND BE OF USE TO MOST COMET AND ASTEROID DATA SETS AND PROJECTS WHETHER THEY BE ASTRONOMICAL IN NATURE (TELESCOPIC OBSERVATIONS) DERIVED FROM MISSION DATA (FLYBY OR RENDEZVOUS DATA SETS) OR ARE BASED ON PURELY SIMULATED DATA (E.G. FROM A SOLAR SYSTEM WORKINGS PROJECT). SBPY WILL BOOST THE PRODUCTIVITY OF CURRENT AND FUTURE PLANETARY ASTRONOMERS AND SMALL BODY RESEARCHERS.