MESSENGER ARRIVES, Mercury Orbit Insertion Options

[Astro0]

Less than 20 hours now until the MESSENGER spacecraft fires its engine to enter orbit at Mercury.

Live Webcast March 17th – broadcast starts at 0030 UTC.

Follow the progress: http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/mer_orbit.html.
There will be commentary on the mission, real-time coverage of the maneuver, animation of what the spacecraft is doing, a view of the carrier’s Doppler as they receive it, and live video from MESSENGER Mission Operations.

Remember that the Canberra DSN is providing two-way communication with MESSENGER
We'll be using both DSS43 (70-metre) and DSS34 (34-metre) antennas.

Good luck to the team at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL).

[maschnitz]

This may be an odd question. Maybe I've misunderstood the science here. But is MESSENGER expected to markedly improved the ephemerides of Mercury and other solar system bodies?

Something I've been interested in (very casually! not a scientist!) is the accuracy of our knowledge of the planet's positions, and how folks use them to make statements about orbital stability and solar system masses and stuff like that. (eg. this PDF)

Is this supposed to be no improvement, a minor improvement, or a major improvement? Are there any specific results expected or hoped for?