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Today's Featured Biography

Edwin Bennett

Background Information
Despite my aerospace studies in college I went to work in the petrochemical industry as a design engineer specializing in metallurgy and corrosion. My assignments evolved into engineering management, government relations, and quality assurance. With a turndown in the oil industry in the mid 1980's I was forced to make an industry and career change. I moved to defense electronics and configuration management respectively, the latter a merging of being a design engineer then verifying the design and seeing all the problems when things are not done correctly, either by the designer or the builder. I then had the opportunity to work on the B-2 Spirit and watched it grow from paper to reality, which was quite amazing. The culmination of my professional journey was arriving at JPL and being able to work with the most talented and dedicated people in the industry. I came to JPL to help standardize the application of configuration management at the lab. Now I implement what I helped develop.

Contributions to Mars Exploration
I was the Configuration Management Engineer for Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), the MARSIS Instrument (on the Mars Express Mission) and the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). My task was to manage the documentation of and for each project, to manage the change process, to see that the changes were authorized before implementation, and to verify that the changes were properly implemented. In addition to the Mars Projects I also participated in many others including Grail, Juno, NuStar and the Orbiting Carbon Observatory.

Personal Reflections

What would I tell college bound high school students?
First, try to keep an open mind. Try to see both sides. If you think something is a certain way your judgment may be clouded to ignore evidence. Second, as an engineer, mathematician or scientist you will have plenty of time in your career to work with computers and video simulations. While in school use them as tools to get the job done, not as a replacement for reality. The real world is amazing enough. Third, learn, learn, learn, do your assignments. It isn't easy; nothing is except giving up. Then it gets really tough. Fourth, develop organizational skills and good study habits.

What are my personal goals for the future?
Having spent over 40 years in a couple of different industries, I have achieved retirement. I want to be able to spend my remaining years enjoying the company of my wife, children and grandchildren, do some traveling, and work on my hobbies.

What are my dreams for the future of exploration?
I have no doubts about the abilities of the engineers and scientists being able to design and build better instruments to gather knowledge. But so much of our current endeavors are constrained by the amount of mass we can build into our spacecraft and the electrical power needs of the systems and instruments. I'd like to see more efficient propulsion and power generation, which means bigger and better spacecraft and more science gathering.

What was the most challenging part of my job?
Everybody agrees configuration management is important but some people believe it gets in their way, constraining their creativity. It can, but like other rules of society (speed limits, paying taxes) we need to have structure and discipline. The challenges I faced were like those of your parents. My job was to see that the engineers and scientists made their beds, brushed their teeth, did their chores and homework.

When I was in elementary school, what did I want to be when I grew up?
In elementary school I was interested in airplanes and wanted to be a pilot. I knew I would have to study engineering if I wanted to build airplanes and fly them. This caused me to become interested in math and science, which meant I had to read a lot, which I did and still do. In high school I took all the college preparatory I could, especially the math and science, that prepared me for studying engineering.

What excites me about Mars or about space exploration?
In my life I have seen many different scientific "facts" and theories revised as knowledge was gained. I have also seen the myths and "sci-fi" of the 1950s, which clouded our views, become reality or amusing old movies. I am always amazed at the newer and better images brought home by our instruments, I am amazed at the knowledge gained, I am amazed as theories of long ago are either proven by new knowledge or altered because we did not know enough.

Did I work on any other projects?
My first assignment at JPL, what brought me there, was to establish standardized configuration management processes to be used on all the flight projects. Having done that, I applied and improved the processes. I, and others, working on the projects, continue to improve these processes, applying the lessons we've learned to make them more effective for the work we do at JPL.

Do you have any hobbies?
My hobbies, of which I have too many, include aviation interests, model building, music (I play poorly, but I play), reading, and genealogy. I discovered that my ancestral name came to North America around 1636.

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