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The planet Mercury.

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When the Messenger spacecraft flies by planet Mercury tomorrow at 5:55 p.m., a New Hampshire science teacher will be reporting online from Mission Control. Sally Jean Jensen, a science teacher at Waterville Valley Academy, is one of six science teachers who will answer questions and post reports as she works with mission scientists at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland. We spoke with Jensen about the mission:

What will the teachers do at Mission Control? We are supposed to be getting the word out because this is a very historic event. The spacecraft was launched in 2004, but when you go to the inner planets it's very complicated, trying to get into the right speed and the right orbit, so it won't do an orbit insertion until 18 months from now. It does the fly-by to slow down and get in sync with its movement.

What is special about Mercury? It's our smallest planet and densest planet. Its rotation is very slow, and they wonder why. The more we understand about the solar system, the better we'll understand our own special planet. It's like exploring, only we aren't totally out there.

You were there for another Mercury fly-by last year. What was that like? It was gorgeous. It was just full of beautiful craters, and it seemed to illuminate. The group of scientists and these teachers, three of us or four, were looking at this before the world.

Where can people find your observations? Online at twitter.com/cosmicfrog and on Facebook. You can find the links on the following blog: blogontheuniverse.org/the-voices-of-mission-control-and-their-social-networking-links.

What do you hope will come out of the collaboration? Scientists and teachers need to bridge the gap so our students become excited about learning.