Space Exploration

From 2017 to 2021 I was the Lead Instrument Engineer for the OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter (OLA) instrument on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, and was intimately involved with the development, testing, and development of the instrument and support tools before that.

In 2023, NASA named an asteroid after me (333054 Bloomquist/2011 SK200), along with several colleagues, for our contributions to the mission. OSIRIS-REx lives on as OSIRIS-APEX, and will be studying the asteroid Apophis in 2029.

I also worked on development and testing for the MET instrument(s) aboard NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander.

These days I’m occasionally supporting the Gateway External Robotics System aka “Canadarm3” for NASA’s Lunar Gateway, in the area of mission planning and operations.