Roger Lenard

Roger Lenard is a retired Air Force officer who holds a Bachelor of Science in physics and a Master of Science in chemical physics. Roger has 2000 hours of single seat fighter time in the Air Force. During his flying career he was a squadron test pilot and an air combat tactics instructor pilot. Roger spent several years in the space object tracking and identification program where he developed the first automatic pattern recognition programs for the Air Force. Roger was selected as part of President Reagan's Defense Technology Study Team where he designed the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization's Kinetic Energy Weapons Master Plan. Roger was transferred to the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization where he was in charge of lightweight interceptors, hypervelocity weapons and was the program manager for the Timberwind program, a project to develop a nuclear thermal rocket stage. Roger managed programs of $100M/year in high technology research and development. Roger has served on four Defense Science Boards on subjects from advanced launch systems to space based radars. One of the products of his programs was the lightweight interceptor package for what is now the Navy Upper Tier defense system. In 1991 Roger was selected to be part of President Bush's Space Exploration Initiative, working for General Thomas Stafford. He was the Mars exploration team co-lead with Mr. Douglas Cook of NASA Johnson Space Center. In 1993 Roger retired from the Air Force and began working for Sandia National Laboratories. In 2000 Roger became a part-time Sandian and began to consult for the Air Force and NASA on the X-37 and hydrogen peroxide fueled upper stage. He is a part-time Principal Member of the Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories in the advanced reactor technology department. He is a consultant to Raytheon Missile Systems on the NASA Concept Evaluation and Refinement effort and provides technical and programmatic advice to Marshall Space Flight Center on the surface nuclear power and nuclear thermal propulsion programs. Roger worked extensively on the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter program for the Northrop Grumman team, who won the JIMO contract. Roger has authored numerous papers and holds several patents and has many documented technical advances to his credit. He is a full academician with the International Astronautical Academy.