The Mission Team

Profile: David Spencer

David Spencer
Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Dave Spencer is the Mission Manager for 2001 Mars Odyssey. In this position, he was responsible for getting the spacecraft to Mars and for accomplishing mission objectives within available resources: mass, schedule, cost, power, etc. He worked closely with mission design and navigation teams to develop the overall mission plan, and led Odyssey's flight team of about 100 people.

Dave first became interested in engineering when he attended a summer engineer camp while studying at Purdue University, where he originally planned to become a professional writer. Inspired by the camp experience, he got a Bachelors Degree in Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering from Purdue in 1989, and also worked as an engineering co-op at Lockheed during his undergraduate years. Following graduation, Dave worked in Alaska on a Forest Service trail crew, and returned to Purdue to complete a Masters Degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics, with a focus on orbital mechanics. Hired at JPL in 1991, he worked on the mission design for the Earth-orbiting TOPEX/Poseidon mission, and then joined the Mars Pathfinder team in 1994. Following Pathfinder's successful landing, he then became Odyssey's Mission Manager. Dave still keeps up with his writing, and has a novel in progress, but reports the progress is very slow considering his day job.

His advice to young people is "Set high goals for yourself. The higher the better. Write them down. Looking back years later, you will be surprised at how many of your goals you have attained or exceeded. Be tenacious, and have confidence in yourself!"

His hometown is Indianapolis, Indiana.