David A. Spencer

David Spencer
Residence Atlanta, Georgia
Fields Aerospace engineering
Institutions Georgia Tech
The Planetary Society
David A. Spencer

David A. Spencer is a professor of aerospace engineering and the co-director of the Space Systems Design Laboratory at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia.[1] He is the principal investigator for the Prox-1 mission, and program and mission manager for LightSail, a solar sailing CubeSat technology demonstration created by The Planetary Society.[2]

Education

Spencer received B.S. and M.S. degrees in aeronautics and astronautics from Purdue University in W. Lafayette, Indiana.[3] He earned his Ph.D. from the Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, completing a dissertation on automated proximity operations using relative orbital elements.[4]

Spaceflight career

Spencer worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 1991 through 2008.[5] He worked on mission design and navigation for the TOPEX/Poseidon and Mars Pathfinder spacecraft, and served as the mission manager for NASA’s Mars Odyssey from 1997-2002, and Deep Impact from 2004-2005. He was the deputy project manager for the Phoenix Mars Lander, before leaving JPL to join the Aerospace Engineering faculty at Georgia Tech.

At Georgia Tech, Spencer founded the Center for Space Systems, and was the Co-Director of the Space Systems Design Laboratory, a multi-disciplinary research and educational organization dedicated to the design, development and operations of advanced space systems and technologies. He has an active research program in small satellite applications.

Spencer assumed the role of mission manager for The Planetary Society’s LightSail 1 spacecraft in 2015.[2] The CubeSat rode to orbit with the U.S. Air Force X-37B spacecraft on May 20, 2015.[6] Spencer led the team through a successful solar sail deployment almost a month later, before LightSail 1 reentered Earth’s atmosphere.[7]

The Planetary Society intends to launch a second LightSail spacecraft, LightSail 2, as soon as 2016.[8] For that mission, LightSail will be enclosed within Prox-1, an autonomous rendezvous technology demonstration SmallSat that will fly aboard the first operational flight of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket.[9] Spencer serves as the principal investigator for Prox-1, and will reprise his role as mission manager for LightSail 2.[2]

References

  1. ↑ "About Prof. Spencer". Georgia Tech SSDL. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 Davis, Jason. "LightSail Project Manager Passes Torch". The Planetary Society. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  3. ↑ "Faculty profile - David Spencer". Georgia Tech College of Engineering. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  4. ↑ "SmarTech, Scholary Research and Materials at Tech". Automated trajectory control for proximity operations using relative orbital elements. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  5. ↑ "David Spencer". Georgia Tech. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  6. ↑ "Tiny Solar Sail 'Cubesat' Launching with X-37B Space Plane on Wednesday". Space.com. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  7. ↑ "After Silences and Setbacks, the LightSail Spacecraft Is Revived, Deploying Its Solar Sail". New York Times.
  8. ↑ "LightSail". LightSail. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  9. ↑ "Private light sail spacecraft to launch by 2016". CBS News. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
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