Randy Pollock Email & Phone Number

Lower Hutt, Nz

Wellington Region, New Zealand

Providing leadership on technology development in transferring Robinson's deep experience in high temperature superconductors to space applications.

Instrument Manager – Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (2019 to present)Responsible for leading a team of ~50 engineers to develop and deliver an imaging spectrometer to characterize the Earth’s dust producing regions. Led major trade studies and development of key contractor statements of work. Mentored lead subsystem engineers. Chief Engineer / Deputy Instrument Manager – SHERLOC for Mars 2020 (2015 to present)Provided leadership for team designing, building and testing a Raman spectrometer and camera system for the Perseverance rover. Project Systems Architect – Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3 (OCO-3) (2013 to 2016)Played a key role in the concept development of operating the OCO-2 spare instrument on the ISS. Conceived of and developed approach for “city mode” to allow the OCO-2 instrument to simulate a wide-swath capability over limited areas as a science demonstration of what the next generation instrument could provide the scientific community. Helped develop interfaces for the new subsystems to make sure they could simulate the missing OCO-2 spacecraft hardware so that the instrument could operate properly. Project Systems Architect – Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) (2009 to 2016)Served as the primary technical leader for cross project activities on mission to measure CO2 in Earth’s atmosphere. Led development of updated test procedures, calibration sources & analysis approach based on the OCO lessons-learned. Led initial development of instrument operations procedures & scripts. Wrote flight rule checking software used in operations.

Lead Instrument Systems Engineer – Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) (2001 to 2009)Integration and Test Phase: Developed analysis techniques and reviewed implementation. Reviewed procedures for hardware safety and completeness. Supported thermal vacuum testing – leading the performance analysis, identifying issues with test equipment and flight hardware. Supported instrument integration at Orbital Sciences. Implementation Phase: Provided technical leadership for instrument design. Reviewed subsystem test plans with discipline leads. Lead planning for integration and test. Continued close support of science team including contributions on calibration and science data processing. Made frequent visits to critical vendors to oversee development and test processes.Formulation Phase: Developed instrument requirements to meet science team’s needs. Oversaw development of instrument/spacecraft interfaces. Continued refinement of the instrument design including overseeing trades on optics, FPA readout approaches, analog circuit architecture, software versus FPGA selection and mechanical packaging. Principal Investigator/Program Manager – Wide Field Imaging Spectrometer (2000-2005)Managed WFIS during hardware build, assembly and test/calibration. Developed techniques for and conducted data analysis both for laboratory and field tests. Demonstrated ~1 nm spectral resolution in visible with good image quality over entire field of regard. Hamilton Sundstrand Systems Engineering Department Manager (2004-2008)Managed 8-10 optical, systems, and project engineers working on development of remote sensing instruments including imaging spectrometers, very wide field-of-view pushbroom imagers, compact wide-band cameras and concentrated solar collectors. Responsible for staffing plans, recruiting and assigning engineers to programs in a matrix organization. Reviewed Internal Research and Development applications.

Pasadena, California, United States

Instrument Manager/System Architect – PABSI (CloudSat) 1999-2000PABSI was to study cloud properties using the oxygen A-band but was descoped due cost growth in other parts of mission. Managed development of near-infrared imaging spectrometer through Phase B to a successful PDR. Served as systems engineer leading small team of optical, mechanical, electrical and thermal engineers. Oversaw peer review process including negotiating agendas, arranging review boards and closing action items. System Architect - QWIP Orbital Radiation Experiment (STRV-1d) 1998-2000Developed system requirements, operational scenarios, and data reduction techniques. Lead instrument-level testing and calibration. Coordinated interfaces with spacecraft builder in United Kingdom. Lead instrument mechanical and electrical integration. Wrote software to read, analyze, trend, and error check raw data packets from experiment for ground testing and in-flight data. Lead instrument integration at spacecraft facility in UK.Technology Development Manager - Integrated Multispectral Atmospheric Sounder 1997-1998Managed development of technologies for a potential successor to AIRS. The major technologies were miniature cryocoolers, silicon-carbide optics, 50-200 GHz MMICs, and 15 micron QWIPs. Regularly visited vendors to assess progress.

Lexington, Massachusetts, United States

System Engineer - Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) (1991-1996)Developed instrument performance models to support early design studies. Wrote orbital mechanics simulator to predict frequency and duration of lunar contamination of dark calibration. Developed system for modeling filter ripple’s impact on quality of spectra. Developed model to evaluate optimal scan direction given that the pupil imaging design lead to scene dependent illumination on the diffraction grating. Created prototype of technique to use atmosphere absorption lines to determine spectral calibration.