Mars mission boasts alumni
 By
Laura Pelner
Campus Editor
NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey project is truly a Boilermaker
mission.
The Odyssey spacecraft, which is scheduled to begin
orbiting Mars tonight, is infused with Purdue spirit — on the flight
team alone there are five Purdue alumni in key positions.
David Spencer, the Mars Odyssey mission manager
and a Purdue graduate, said it's great to be working with fellow alumni.
"We're all from relatively the same epoch, 1985
to 1991," he said. "It's exciting to be working with these people."
Another graduate, Robert Mase, the navigation team
leader, said quite a few Purdue alumni work in NASA's Jet Propulsion
Lab, which manages the mission. Mase said the Boilermakers in the lab
still follow Purdue sports and maintain a Purdue connection.
The lab is in Pasadena, Calif., so it was especially
exciting to be there last winter for the Rose Bowl, said Mase.
Spencer and Mase knew each other when they attended
Purdue; they both got their bachelor's degrees in 1989 and their master's
degrees in 1991 in West Lafayette.
"We do talk about old times quite a bit," Spencer
said. "Especially times in Grissom Hall, which is where we spent most
of our lives during those graduate years."
While Spencer was in school, another one of the
Odyssey mission team members was at Purdue — Julia Bell, a spacecraft
maneuver designer. Spencer said he and Bell had the same adviser so
they also share a bond.
The other two Purdue alumni working on the mission
— Stuart Spath, the spacecraft team chief, and Peter Antreasian,
a navigator — were at Purdue a few years before Spencer.
James Longuski, professor of aeronautics and astronautics
engineering, worked with Spencer and Mase at Purdue. Spencer was one
of his students and Mase was one of his teaching assistants.
"I'm very proud of what they've been able to accomplish,"
Longuski said. "That's pretty impressive for (Spencer) to get that level
of responsibility in what seems to be a short time. … I'm really
proud of him, that he's risen to the level of mission manager. That
is a high level of responsibility."
Longuski said he's sure there are more than five
Purdue alumni associated with the Odyssey Mars mission. He said the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory has 5,000 employees and that Purdue is well
represented in it.
To Longuski, this is more proof that Purdue is
one of the top schools in astronautics.
The Odyssey Mars mission was launched April 7 from
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. One of the trip's objectives
is to map the chemical and mineralogical makeup of Mars.
Spencer said the Odyssey spacecraft has a "very
powerful science instrument payload," and he said along with mapping,
it will also look for hot spots on Mars' surface. The hot spots would
be likely places to send Mars landers in the future, he said.
The Odyssey has been in space for about 200 days
and traveled about 285 million miles. It will study Mars for two and
a half years.
"We're very excited about the mission, in getting
there," Mase said. "We're excited that Purdue has an interest in it
and we're glad we can do something. Hopefully we make (Purdue) look
good."
Longuski said he predicts seeing more Purdue graduates
achieve excellence in space exploration. "It's my belief that among
the people who will first set foot on Mars, there will be Purdue graduates
among them," he said.
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