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Gearing Up for
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When the NASA Discovery MESSENGER Mercury orbiter launches this summer on its historic mission of exploration of the inner most planet, two scientists from the Department of Space Studies will be playing roles. Dr. Clark Chapman, with SwRI since 1996, is a MESSENGER CoI, serving on both the imaging and EPO teams of the mission. Dr. Bill Merline, also with SwRI since 1996, is a collaborating scientist serving on the imaging team. MESSENGER will make successive Earth and Venus flybysduring 2005-2007 before it begins to return Mercury science in January 2008; the mission is managed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL); Dr. Sean Solomon is the mission PI.
