Profile:
Guy Beutelschies holds the position of Chief Engineer for Odyssey, and is responsible for ensuring the overall health of the Odyssey spacecraft and making sure it will meet its mission success goals. He has also served as System Design Lead and Flight Systems Engineer. Since childhood, Guy has been fascinated by science fiction stories as well as watching NASA missions in the news. In high school, he was good at math and science, which steered him towards a career in engineering. He has been at JPL for 14 years. During this time, he has been the Test Director and Flight Engineer for Mars Pathfinder, and has held many other system engineering positions in the Advanced Projects Group, the Miniature Space Technology Initiative (MSTI), the Galileo mission to Jupiter, and the Solar Mesosphere Explorer (SME). Guy has his BS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and his MS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Southern California. A volleyball fan and history buff, Guy calls Denver, Colorado his hometown and current city of residence.

Guy's personal goal is to continue to be involved in the exploration of space. "I love the idea of exploring the unknown and bringing back pictures of places no one has ever seen before. We are fortunate to be living at the dawn of space exploration. Just as we look back on Columbus, Magellan, and other early mariners venturing across the sea searching for new lands, future generations will look back upon us. It gives me a great deal of satisfaction to participate in projects that will be remembered long after we are gone."

The best advice Guy has to offer to today's students is "to find something you are passionate about and turn it into your career. Since you will spend so much of your life working, you should make sure it is something that you are excited about doing. I not only love what I am doing but I am proud of what we are accomplishing. Be careful, though, that work does not become all consuming. Maintain a healthy balance between work and family, science and art, intellect and athletics, reason and faith. In my opinion, you will not only live a more fulfilling life, but you will be more effective in whatever career you pursue."
Profile courtesy NASA's Jet Prpopulsion Laboratory

What I Do

I work for the Mars Pathfinder project. This is an unmanned spacecraft that will be launched December 2, 1996 and will land July 4, 1997. It contains a camera to survey the landing site, a weather station to record temperatures and atmospheric pressures, and a rover. The rover is a small remote-controlled vehicle that will drive around and analyze rocks and soil.

My job as test director involves leading a team that tests the spacecraft to make sure everything works. The first step is to learn what the spacecraft can do and what the scientists and engineers want it to do. This is a little easier for me because I was one of the engineers who helped design it. In order to make sure everything gets tested, I have made a list of every function the spacecraft performs. I then take these functions and allocate them to specific tests.

The second step is to write test procedures. These procedures contain the steps necessary to make the spacecraft perform a certain activity and the things we need to look for in order to make sure it is performing correctly.