Robert Manning

Robert Manning

Since 2004, Robert Manning has been the Mars Exploration Program Chief Engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsions Laboratory in Pasadena, California where he is responsible for ensuring that current and future missions to Mars succeed. In early 2008 he was also named the chief engineer for the Mars Science Laboratory Mission, a new rover mission set to land on Mars in 2010. Prior to these roles, Robert Manning lead the "spacecraft" systems engineering team for the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) project that landed twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, on the surface of Mars in early 2004.

Before MER, Robert Manning was the Chief Engineer for the very exciting 1997 Mars Pathfinder mission where he also led its entry, descent and landing team. Prior to Pathfinder he developed computers and fault tolerant electronic systems for JPL's deep space missions. Rob has been working at JPL since 1980.

As a result of his successes at JPL, Robert Manning has received two NASA medals and is in the Aviation Week Magazine Space Laureate Hall of Fame in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. In 2004 SpaceNews magazine named Robert Manning as one of 100 people who made a difference in civil, commercial and military space since 1989.

Robert Manning is a graduate of Caltech and Whitman College where he studied math, physics, computer science and control systems. He makes his home in Pasadena with his wife Dominique and their daughter, Caline.

 

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