Title: Lunar Habitat Formulation Lead and Technical Program Director
Company: Blue Origin
Location: Berthoud, Colorado, United States
William J. O’Hara IV, lunar habitat formulation lead and technical program director at Blue Origin, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Engineers for dedication, achievements, and leadership in aerospace engineering.
With over two and a half decades of experience, Mr. O’Hara has built a successful career in engineering, specializing in aerospace engineering. Since 2022, he has served as the lunar habitat formulation lead and technical program director at Blue Origin. In this role, he leads teams of engineers to conduct trade studies for the formulation of habitat concepts and develops ways for humans to live off Earth, focusing on planetary surface habitats. He also co-founded Final Frontier Habitats LLC in 2022, where he provides consulting services for businesses on orbital space stations. His experience includes roles as a senior principal systems engineer for Space Destinations, principal systems engineer in the Advanced Development Group at Sierra Space Corporation, senior systems engineer for the Advanced Exploration Life Support Systems Project at KBR Inc., and an engineer III at Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies. He also worked as a senior project engineer for the Orion Environmental Control and Life Support System at Lockheed Martin and as an engineer, and certified flight controller for ISS Mechanisms and Maintenance at United Space Alliance, as well as engineering co-op positions at Delta Air Lines and SDRC, and space studies instructor at the American Public University System.
Mr. O’Hara has also contributed as an author of several notable works, including “The Case for Titan,” “Assessing Dust Migration Through Pressurized Habitable Volumes” presented at the International Conference on Environmental Systems, and “Turn-Key Use of an Onboard 3D Printer for International Space Station Operations.” His work also includes “Challenges of Mars Mission Phase Transitions on Spacecraft Environmental Control and Life Support Systems” presented at the International Conference on Environmental Systems, “Commonality Assessment of Mars Dust Filter Development Between Atmosphere In-Situ Resource Utilization and Surface Habitat Environmental Control Systems,” and “New Technologies for Powering a Surface Mission on Titan: Capturing Energy from Titan’s Winds for Science Exploration” presented at the 49th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in 2018. He has held numerous professional and civic roles, including serving on the aerospace engineering and space architecture committees for the American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics since 2023. He is a fellow of the Explorers Club and a member of the International Meteorite Collectors Association, The Planetary Society, and the American Geophysical Union. She was vice president of the IMCA from 2022 to 2023 and has served with NASA’s Small Bodies Assessment Group. Additionally, he is the founder and executive director of Explore Titan and has been involved with 4th Planet Logistics, the Civil Air Patrol, Mars Astronautics Science Technologies, and the Boy Scouts of America.
Additionally, Mr. O’Hara received the ISS Expedition 11 Crew Appreciation Award in 2005, and a special recognition award from Lockheed Martin Corporation in 2009. He was nominated for the Rotary Stellar Award in 2010 and earned several accolades from United Space Alliance, including the Employee of the Month Award in 2005, the Superior Achievement Recognition Award in 2005, the Employee of the Month Award in 2004, and the Employee of the Month Award in 2003. Laying a solid educational foundation, she earned a Bachelor of Science in aerospace engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 1998, a master’s degree in geophysics from the University of Houston in 2003 and is currently pursuing a PhD in space sciences at the University of North Dakota. She completed an introduction to saturation diving course at Florida International University in 2023 and became a certified associate in project management through the Project Management Institute Inc. in 2016. She takes great pride in being part of the team that built the International Space Station earlier in his career, where he was one of the individuals certified to operate the systems that attached the modules. He is also the founder of Explore Titan, a nonprofit organization with the goal of adding Titan, one of Saturn’s largest moons, to NASA’s plans for human exploration of the solar system. He envisions Titan as a potential human destination and aims to develop a habitat concept that can support human life on this distant moon. In the coming years, he plans to complete his PhD and is considering a possible pivot to becoming a professor afterward.
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