David Spencer is an Associate Professor within the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He joined the AAE faculty in Fall 2016 after six years as a Professor of Practice at Georgia Tech. Prior to that, Spencer spent 17 years at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, where he was the Deputy Project Manager for the Phoenix Mars Lander, Mission Manager for the Deep Impact and Mars Odyssey projects, and mission designer for Mars Pathfinder and TOPEX/Poseidon.

Spencer says one thing he noticed in his time at JPL was that there was a big need for young engineers who have hands-on experience coming into their first job.

“If they don’t have hands-on experience, they don’t add a lot of value to a project,” says Spencer. “So when I was given the opportunity to go to Georgia Tech and start a program for doing space flight projects that involve students through the entire life cycle — from conceptual design all the way through flight operations — I decided to transition from industry to academia.”

Spencer says the goal isn’t just to complete a two- or three-year project, but to make the project something that will advance the state of the art in a certain area. That’s the type of program Spencer is planning to bring to Purdue. He says students who are involved in these types of projects are highly sought after by industry after graduation because it’s relevant experience they don’t get through the traditional curriculum.

Spencer is an alumnus of the Purdue AAE program, earning B.S. and M.S. degrees in 1989 and 1991, respectively. He says the lure of working at his alma mater is only one reason he decided to join the Purdue AAE faculty.

“Purdue has a very strong program and is extremely well-known in space mission design,” says Spencer. “The strong ties between AAE and Purdue’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences is key, as well. I look forward to partnering with them on projects.”

The research areas Spencer is interested in include small satellite applications, the orbital mechanics involved in the relative motion of one spacecraft with respect to another, and what he calls aeroassist technologies.

“Aeroassist means using the atmosphere of a planet to help shape the orbit,” says Spencer. “There are several different categories of that, including entry, descent, and landing, aerocapture, and aerobreaking.”

Spencer earned a PhD from the Georgia Tech in 2015. He is an Associate Fellow in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and is the author or co-author of technical publications in the fields of mission design, flight operations, and system engineering. Spencer has earned numerous awards and honors, including the Purdue School of Aeronautics and Astronautics Outstanding Aerospace Engineer award in 2004.

Spencer’s wife, Sally, is an artist who specializes in oil painting. They have two sons – Jackson, who is studying Psychology at Miami of Ohio, and Ben, who is a freshman at Grinnell College planning on studying something in biomedical science. When he’s not teaching or in the lab, Spencer likes to golf and play tennis.