James Oberg reports in IEEE Spectrum today about a presentation
given by a Chinese space official at the Small Bodies Assessment Group
in Washington on January 15 2013.
The presentation revealed more details about the Chang’e-2 satellite's close
encounter with asteroid Toutatis at the L2 point.
Incredibly the encounter was improvised as part of an extended mission
after the satellite had orbited the Moon for six months.
The 2km to 3km diameter Toutatis was travelling at 10,730 meters per
second and may have passed within 3.2km of the satellite. This may
have provided the opportunity to determine the object's mass from its
weak gravity field.
Article here -
http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/s...roid-encounter
