ADASSX

On June 23rd, 2025, the Rubin Observatory made public its first science-usable dataset, in the form of a submission to the Minor Planet Center of around 340,000 measurements of about 2100 newly designated asteroids. This batch, identified and measured over a 12-night period in later April/early May 2025 and totaling about 10 hours of observing time, was enabled by Rubin's large mirror and wide FoV camera, but also a complex software stack capable of detecting, measuring, linking, QA-ing and submitting these objects a short time after observation.

This is not an aberration. Modern survey telescopes, including small body surveys, increasingly depend on advanced algorithms to take maximum advantage of hardware available to them. And with the escalating cost and difficulty of building ever larger telescopes, it is a trend that is sure to intensify. In this presentation, I will overview what we've learned from Rubin (so far) about developing and deploying asteroid detection and linking algorithms. I will discuss how our experiences connect to broader (and rich) developments in the community, and argue that upcoming improvements in Solar System mapping will be driven by software as much as hardware advances.