ALUMNI IN ACTION
How a Lightning Bolt Led Daniel Andrews to the Moon
By Cassie Myers
ALUMNI IN ACTION
How a Lightning Bolt Led Daniel Andrews to the Moon
By Cassie Myers
D aniel Andrews, ‘87 Electrical Engineering, can’t help giving cool sound bites. It’s all part of a day’s work in his role as project manager of many NASA missions, and he throws them out casually, like little bits of catnip for an interviewer. When he speaks about the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission, for example, which sent a satellite into a permanently shadowed crater in 2009 to discover that to everyone’s astonishment, there actually was water ice on the moon, he observes, “We rewrote the books on the moon.”
He follows that up with an even cooler assessment of the moon, as if it’s a worthy challenger in the difficult environment of space.
“When you're on the moon, the moon's going to be throwing all kinds of weirdness at you,” he states. “So you have to understand how your vehicle naturally behaves, so you can know if there’s something wrong with the rover or if it's the moon messing with you.”
But maybe it’s his advice to fellow Spartans that is the most impressive soundbite of all: “Open yourself up to lightning bolts.” Because that’s precisely how he got where he is.
“I literally owe my career to [SJSU] Professor Lincoln Jones and that lightning bolt he directed toward me that day."
— Daniel Andrews
Lightning bolts
Andrews defines “lightning bolts” as moments of opportunity, when something appears that you didn’t expect. Something that you’re not really sure is “you” or in line with your current trajectory — a career option you didn’t anticipate, for example. And when you see that lightning bolt? Andrews wants you to take that chance.
After all, he did. A Bay Area native, he first attended junior college in Livermore before transferring to San José State’s electrical engineering program. As a student, he was drawn to control theory, the ability to manipulate mechanisms and structures by creating software and/or hardware like circuits and amplifiers.
He met regularly with his control theory professor Lincoln Jones, working diligently and going to office hours. And as it turned out, a former student of Jones’ was a NASA employee. The former student came back to SJSU and asked Jones if he knew anyone they should interview for an open NASA position. Jones recommended Andrews, and the rest is history.
“I literally owe my career to Professor Lincoln Jones and that lightning bolt he directed toward me that day,” Andrews concludes. He had always assumed he would work at a Silicon Valley tech firm, but when the lightning bolt hit, he took the opportunity. He’s now been with NASA 37 years — and he can’t believe it.
Project Manager
Andrews started at NASA in motion control, working on the same control theory issues that first fascinated him at SJSU. Over the years he moved to various projects, including designing robotic astronaut assistants, a snakebot, an underwater treadmill, a robotic exobiology table, and a ten-year period automating a 100,000 horsepower wind tunnel, where he says he “really grew up professionally.”
“Every time I attained new skills and experiences it grew my confidence and a new opportunity presented itself,” he remembers. “I would move into each new opportunity and that led me to the next, more challenging one.” Eventually he worked his way up to becoming a project manager on a mission — his first was LCROSS, the mission that first discovered water ice on the moon.
“That was my first opportunity to blend my technology understanding with a large-scale programmatic effort, leading people through tough times and very hard technical challenges,” he says. “During that process, people in leadership positions above me started noting that I had a knack for assembling high performance teams. It doesn't necessarily matter if it’s the moon or another goal. You need to be able to get a group of people together, marshal their energies and their excitement, and point them in a direction that enables them to go be awesome.”
Turns out he could, and he did. “You want to clear the decks for them, don't micromanage, trust in them and have them feel the best possible kind of obligation – doing right by their peers and leadership, as that's the best motivator no matter what,” he explains. “That’s what brought me to LCROSS and beyond.”
And he’s grateful for every minute. “Most people don't get to do this type of work in their careers - even if you're inside NASA,” Andrews says. “Then you do your first mission and realize, ‘Wow, there really is water ice on the moon — that's fantastic.’ That would rightfully be the high point in anyone’s career, but then you consider, Now what?’”
As chief of the engineering directorate at NASA’s Ames Research Center, he has a great deal more in store. We would expect nothing less from a former Spartan — exploring and innovating, even beyond Earth.
“It doesn't necessarily matter if it’s the moon or another goal. You need to be able to get a group of people together, marshal their energies and their excitement, and point them in a direction that enables them to go be awesome."
— Daniel Andrews
Want to learn more?
Top image: VIPER project manager and director of engineering at NASA’s Ames Research Center Daniel Andrews (center) shows former Vice President Mike Pence (right) the VIPER engineering test unit with VIPER project scientist Anthony Colaprete (left) at NASA Ames. Center photo of Daniel Andrews courtesy of NASA.
Curious about Daniel Andrews' NASA adventures?
Top photo: VIPER project manager and director of engineering at NASA’s Ames Research Center Daniel Andrews (center) shows former Vice President Mike Pence (right) the VIPER engineering test unit with VIPER project scientist Anthony Colaprete (left) at NASA Ames. Photo by Dominic Hart, courtesy of NASA. Center photo of Daniel Andrews courtesy of NASA.
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