The high number of planet discoveries made in the last years provides a good
sample for statistical analysis, leading to some clues on the distributions of
planet parameters, like masses and periods, at least in close proximity to the
host star. We likely need to wait for the extremely large telescopes (ELTs) to
have an overall view of the extrasolar planetary systems. In this context it
would be useful to have a tool that can be used for the interpretation of the
present results,and also to predict what the outcomes would be of the future
instruments. For this reason we built MESS: a Monte Carlo simulation code which
uses either the results of the statistical analysis of the properties of
discovered planets, or the results of the planet formation theories, to build
synthetic planet populations fully described in terms of frequency, orbital
elements and physical properties. They can then be used to either test the
consistency of their properties with the observed population of planets given
different detection techniques or to actually predict the expected number of
planets for future surveys. In addition to the code description, we present
here some of its applications to actually probe the physical and orbital
properties of a putative companion within the circumstellar disk of a given
star and to test constrain the orbital distribution properties of a potential
planet population around the members of the TW Hydrae association. Finally,
using in its predictive mode, the synergy of future space and ground-based
telescopes instrumentation has been investigated to identify the mass-period
parameter space that will be probed in future surveys for giant and rocky
planetsComment: 14 pages, 16 figure