Re:Go NASA geeks!!! (Score 1)

Thanks. It's worth noting that no NASA employees were involved with this. The team is composed of Johns Hopkins University faculty and staff, and contractor personnel from Honeywell, Orbital Sciences, Computer Sciences Corp., Interface Control Systems, and a few other places. The initial idea to try using the magnetic torquers has to be credited to the senior Attitude Control System Engineer, an Orbital Sciences guy. Since the spacecraft had not been designed for this sort of application, it was a tricky thing to make the mods.

Lots of really bright and dedicated people (including a certain FUSEnerd who's posted a few things here) were involved in making this happen. We're still feeling our way along, as we learn to operate with the new attitude control system.