Arturo Campos (1934 – September 5, 2001) was an American

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

who worked at

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

on the electrical systems for the

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

and

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

programs. He played a major role in devising a solution to the emergency that arose during the

Apollo 13 Apollo 13 (April 1117, 1970) was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo program, Apollo space program and would have been the third Moon landing. The craft was launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 11, 1970, but the landing was abort ...

mission.

Early life and education

Campos was born into a

Mexican American Mexican Americans are Americans of full or partial Mexico, Mexican descent. In 2022, Mexican Americans comprised 11.2% of the US population and 58.9% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexican Americans were born in the Unite ...

family in

Laredo, Texas Laredo ( ; ) is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Webb County, Texas, Webb County, on the north bank of the Rio Grande in South Texas, across from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Founded in 1755, Laredo grew from a villag ...

; his father was a mechanic. He graduated in 1952 from Martin High School, attended Laredo Junior College, and in 1956 earned a degree in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

from the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

Career

He worked at

Kelly Air Force Base Kelly Field (formerly Kelly Air Force Base) is a Joint-Use facility located in San Antonio, Texas. It was originally named after George E. M. Kelly, the first member of the U.S. military killed in the crash of an airplane he was piloting. I ...

as an aircraft maintenance supervisor before joining NASA in September 1963. At the

Johnson Space Center The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight in Houston, Texas (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight controller, flight control are conducted. ...

, he played a major role in developing the electrical systems for both the Apollo spacecraft and the Space Shuttle. On April 13, 1970, he was the subsystem manager responsible for the lunar module power system when the

mission suffered a loss of power due to a

fuel cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen fuel, hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most bat ...

explosion, and led the way in devising a solution so that the three astronauts aboard could return to Earth safely. He retired from NASA in 1980 and became a consultant in electrical engineering in Houston. While at the Johnson Space Center, Campos established its branch of the

League of United Latin American Citizens The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is the largest and oldest Hispanic and Latin-American civil rights organization in the United States. It was established on February 17, 1929, in Corpus Christi, Texas, largely by Hispanic and ...

and in 1974 became its first president, was a member of the employees' Hispanic Heritage Program, and served as Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action Program representative.

Personal life and death

Campos and his wife, Petra T. Campos, had three daughters. He died of a heart attack at his home in

Seabrook, Texas Seabrook is a city in Harris County, Texas, Harris County, Texas, United States, with some water surface area located within Chambers County, Texas, Chambers County. The population was 13,618 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census. S ...

, at 66.

Honors and legacy

Campos shared in the

Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, alongside the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by decision of the president of the United States to "any person recommended to the President ...

that was awarded to the

Mission Control A mission control center (MCC, sometimes called a flight control center or operations center) is a facility that manages space flights, usually from the point of launch until landing or the end of the mission. It is part of the ground segment ...

staff after the Apollo 13 incident. He was inducted into the Martin High School Hall of Fame in 2002. After a public contest, his name was used for the male

mannequin A mannequin (sometimes spelled as manikin and also called a dummy, lay figure, or dress form) is a doll, often articulated, used by artists, tailors, dressmakers, window dressers and others, especially to display or fit clothing and show off dif ...

Commander Moonikin Campos to be used to test

radiation exposure Radiation exposure is a measure of the ionization of air due to ionizing radiation from photons. It is defined as the electric charge freed by such radiation in a specified volume of air divided by the mass of that air. As of 2007, "medical radia ...

and other hazards on the

Artemis 1 Artemis I, formerly Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), was an uncrewed Moon-orbiting mission that was launched in November 2022. As the first major spaceflight of NASA's Artemis program, Artemis I marked the agency's return to lunar exploration a ...

lunar mission in 2022.

References

1934 births 2001 deaths American electrical engineers University of Texas at Austin alumni Martin High School (Laredo, Texas) alumni People from Laredo, Texas Apollo 13 Artemis program American people of Mexican descent NASA people {{US-electrical-engineer-stub