[X] My Assistant

[Paolo]

I thought it was time to split the subject from the Moon forum.
Admins, can you move the relevant messages here?

anyway, just out: an interesting blog article by Bill Gray explaining how he recovered the probe and how he computed the orbit yielding the 13 December flyby date
Chang'e 2: The Full Story

[Paolo]

I don't want to belittle the CE-2 achievement, but I have a question for the scientific data minded: beside basic shape and topography, what can be extracted from this kind of webcam-like, probably uncalibrated images? not much I suspect.

as for another extended mission, I think even merely tracking the probe as long as possible, without firing the engine anymore would provide useful experience for future missions beyond the Moon

[JimOberg]

as for another extended mission, I think even merely tracking the probe as long as possible, without firing the engine anymore would provide useful experience for future missions beyond the Moon

Tracking to determine the exact course change from the close fly-by will give superb data on asteroid mass. With images that show volume, you get real density data. Accidental or not, the very close fly-by itself is a major scientific experiment.