Recent Advances and Challenges in the Pan-STARRS Moving Object Processing System
Pan-STARRS (PS) continues to be one of the most productive near-Earth object (NEO) survey programs to date. While some researchers have suggested that NEO discoveries are beginning to plateau or decline year-on-year, the community continues to set new records. Most notably, both PS and ATLAS surpassed their personal best for discoveries in 2024. For PS, this sustained productivity is largely due to improvements in our follow-up strategies and ongoing improvements to our Moving Object Processing System (MOPS) that leverage new technologies.
In this talk, I will provide a brief overview of recent changes to PS's NEO follow-up approach, including updates on the status of our observatories. I will then delve into recent upgrades to MOPS, with a focus on our transition to adopting micro-services and containerization to enhance scalability and control. I will conclude with a discussion of what our plans are for the upcoming LSST era.