Unrlelated... but not (in the big picture).
One or our FTC mentors (Max) really is a retired rocket scientist. He was involved with 9 different satelite missions.
His last (before retiring) was the "Messenger" who's mission was/is to take up orbit around Mercury and do various mapping.
The Satelite was launched back in 2004, but just this week it will do it's final orbit insertion. He's pretty excited
Imagine designing anything that you send out and have to wait 7 years for it to do it's job.
If you want to see some more details (and a cool animation) go here:
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/mer_orbit.html
Stay tuned for pictures.
Phil.
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Phil Malone
Garrett Engineering And Robotics Society (GEARS) founder.
http://www.GEARSinc.org
FRC1629 Mentor, FTC2818 Coach, FTC4240 Mentor, FLL NeXTGEN Mentor