A mechatronics, mechanisms and multi-body dynamics engineer with over 25 years of experience in NASA, industry, and academia, Dr. Blomquist is a world expert on heliogyro dynamics and heliogyro spacecraft designs. He holds a PhD in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University, where he created the Solar Blade Solar Sail project, managed the project team, raised funds and also led planetary rover research. His dissertation is entitled “Heliogyro Control”. He has extensive space hardware experience. While a mechanisms cognizant engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he created the science arm on the Mars Sojourner Rover. He also was a member of the Galileo high gain antenna anomaly tiger team, the Mars Pathfinder science team, and an advanced concepts solar sail team for a heliopause mission.   He holds an SM in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT. His Master’s thesis is entitled “Design Study of a Solid State Heliogyro Solar Sail”.

Related to his heliogyro work, Dr. Blomquist is a dynamics expert regarding long, flexible spacecraft appendages. Part of his portfolio also includes work on an asteroid lander, lunar rovers, multiple solar array deployment projects, multi-body dynamics analyses, and proposal development.