alcaray wrote:
After the orbiter has achieved a stable orbit, will the accelerometer be used for anything?

Alex writes:
Yes, though almost exclusively for routine engineering and spacecraft maintenance purposes. Bear in mind that the spacecraft needs realtime input on accelerations to maintain stability; these data are provided, as is the case on almost all spacecraft, by onboard accelerometers.

From a science standpoint it's hard to see how the accelerometer data, except for atmospheric density at lower altitudes, could be of more value than (or even approaching the precision) of the Doppler tracking data from the Radio Science USO system.

Alex R. Blackwell
University of Hawaii