The preliminary science results were presented at a press conference on Jan 30, and those results are summarized well in the Planetary Society's blog.
As the author of that blog noted, however, there was another outcome in the press conference.
One of the press questions at the end was from a tiny local radio station who said that he knew he was being listened to by an audience of schoolkids; what would the science panel say to those kids? One panelist, Bob Strom, talked briefly about how much of a "turn-on" science was, which was a bit awkward; but, with a couple more minutes to think, Sean Solomon [the MESSENGER PI] really stepped up. Here's what he said:Space exploration is a lot more than space science. We're flying a spacecraft that owes its origin and livelihood to hundreds of engineers and technicians who designed it, who worried about how it would survive so close to the Sun, how it would survive radiation, how it would live for nearly 8 years, how it would communicate its scientific findings back to the Earth, how it would get launched, how it would find its way billions of miles, 15 times around the Sun, to get into Mercury orbit 6 and a half years following its launch. There are a lot of ways to contribute to space exploration. Science is one of them. The engineering of building, operating, and maintaining spacecraft is a terrific field, and we [gesturing to the panel] would not be up here if we did not have an outstanding team of engineers who put this spacecraft together and keep it going.
I couldn't say it better myself!
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