John Spencer is a space architect who has built a career that balances
the design and development professions. He is a pioneer in what he
calls "The Design Frontier."
In 1995 he founded the not-for-profit Space Tourism Society
(STS) of which he is president. He is also the author with Karen L.
Rugg of the book Space Tourism - Do You Want to Go published by Apogee
books in 2004.
He has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Scientific
American, Space News, Popular Science, Men's Journal, Los Angeles
Times, and more than 50 other magazines and newspaper articles on Space
Tourism. He has appeared on "The Today Show," and on CNN, ABC, CBS
News, and more than three dozen other television stations, including
the Discovery Channel, PBS, Japanese NHK, and the Learning Channel.
He has won design awards from NASA for pioneering interior design work
for the International Space Station (ISS) and has designed projects for
the NSF built in Antarctica, and for NOAA built under water. Both
science bases are still in operation.
He recently designed the new NASA Ames visitor center and the
new corporate headquarters and spaceship manufacturing facility for the
XCOR Aerospace Corporation.
Over the past 25 years he and his team have proven they can
originate exciting design concepts and attract the investment, joint
venture, and sponsorship of some of the world's most prestigious
corporations. Millions of dollars have been invested directly into his
concepts and intellectual properties. He creates, designs, and develops
his own orbital tourism, lunar, and Mars/future-themed immersive
simulation and attraction projects, while also serving as a conceptual
designer for a variety of clients, government agencies and institutes.
He is the founder and president of Red Planet Ventures, Inc.
(RPV), a design, licensing and branding company focused on Mars themed
simulation ventures. RPV is based in west Los Angeles with easy access
to one of the world’s best creative talent pools.
He went to the University of Southern California (USC) from
1974 to 1978 in the school of architecture. He received his
professional degree in 1980 and masters degrees in 1982 from the
Southern California Institute of Architecture.
