ALUMNUS GOTTHARD JANSON

A deeper dive

▲Divers test a device Cal Poly students designed and created for NASA astronauts to use in space. The team won first place in the Micro-g NExT Space Suit Attachment Quick Release System design challenge.

Space industry veteran engineer Gotthard Janson wants to help future generations explore space

Cal Poly’s timeline has changed considerably since Gotthard Janson last walked on campus 57 years ago. But the most drastic difference since the space industry veteran’s 1964 graduation is the technology available to today’s students.

“Today’s students have been brought up with computers,” he said. “When I went to Cal Poly, the most fascinating thing I had in the way of technology was a slide rule. I firmly believe technology is accelerating.”

While some graduates from past generations might resist change, Janson thinks his mentorship can help students use modern technology to gain even greater advances.

This past year, he mentored a team of Cal Poly students, the CP Space Squad, working on NASA’s Micro-g NExT Space Suit Attachment Quick Release System design challenge. The challenge, which served as the team’s senior project, was to design a device that would allow future astronauts to easily access tools during lunar missions.

“Throughout his mentorship, he recounted many stories of his time at Cal Poly and his experience in getting to where he is today,” said Andres Elzaurdia, the team lead. “Hearing about his struggles and triumphs helped put into perspective where we are in our career paths and how many options we have available to us.”

After graduating from Cal Poly with a mechanical engineering degree, Janson wanted to become an Air Force pilot, but a vision issue disqualified him from flying. However, when the Air Force sought volunteers to help NASA with the Space Shuttle program, Janson navigated a new career path.

In the Air Force, where Janson eventually became a lieutenant colonel, he directed studies to define Shuttle elements.

“For the design, it started with the basic questions, ‘What should it look like? Should it have wings? Should it have propulsive capabilities? Should it be able to come back from space in a few orbits?” Janson said.

Janson was there when the first shuttle, Columbia, launched in 1981 — a watershed moment for both his career and the space program.

“After having worked on it for many years before that, designing it, testing it, getting it ready and everything else, going down to the Kennedy Space Center to see it lift off was just one of those moments – you just hold your breath and hope it gets off the ground,” Janson said. “That was a marvelous piece of engineering that we humans built.”

After 25 years with the Air Force, Janson continues to advance the space industry as an engineer with private companies supporting NASA, including Lockheed Martin, Boeing and GeoControl Systems. His efforts have included working on the design and assembly for the International Space Station and projects focused on technologies supporting humans being able to live and work in near zero gravity.

“I wish I could be around for another 20 years, but I look forward to future generations exploring further into space,” he said.

To help prepare those generations, he regularly promotes STEM to high school and college students. The CP Space Squad he mentored for the Micro-g project created a 21-page document on their quick release system, along with a device that was actually tested underwater (which simulates near-zero gravity) at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

“Gotthard did a good job of reminding us of the professionalism and quality of work expected of us by NASA,” Elzaurdia said.

Janson also arranged for the students to present their design work to a principal NASA contractor and a new engineering design company constructing a lunar lander for the upcoming Artemis Program.

“This gave them more knowledge about how the industry works, along with exposure to other industry professionals,” said Peter Schuster, who served as the faculty advisor. “In addition, Gotthard talked with them about how these activities aligned with industry practices and constantly reminded them that the quality of their presentations was almost as important as the quality of their work.”

While Janson provides an important link to the past, he likes to remind the younger generations of their technological advantages – illustrated by cellphones that can outperform computers used to send astronauts to the moon.

“Only in the last few hundred years did we develop the internal combustion engine, and then we developed a car,” he said. “And in the last hundred years, look at what we’ve done — we’re flying, and we’ve accelerated technology to the point where we walked on the moon, and now we’re planning and talking about going to Mars.” n

▲Mechanical engineering alumnus Gotthard Janson measures up to a Robonaut.