Engineer Kevin McNeill compares the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to his two children, who recently left home for college. “You’re hopeful everything you’ve done in 18 years of raising that child has prepared him for life on his own,” McNeill said Wednesday, hours before he and his colleagues boxed the school-bus-size craft for shipping. On Friday, McNeill and the rest of his Lockheed Martin team will send their $500 million baby to Florida. NASA is expected to launch the craft Aug. 10, 2005.