Jacob Bleacher
Chief Exploration Scientist
Jacob Bleacher is a planetary geologist who currently serves as the Chief Exploration Scientist in the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate (ESDMD) at NASA Headquarters in Washington. In this role, he is the science advocate for NASA technology and architecture development to enable human exploration of the Moon and Mars. He also serves as a primary contact with NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) and the science community external to NASA. He also leads the science, technology utilization, and integration team within ESDMD’s Strategy and Architecture Office.
Dr. Bleacher earned a bachelor of science in Geosciences from Franklin and Marshall College and Ph.D. in Geological Sciences from the Arizona State University. During his Ph.D. research, he worked on the European Space Agency’s Mars Express Mission by conducting geologic mapping of the initial images acquired of the large Tharsis province volcanoes by the mission’s High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). Dr. Bleacher joined NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, as a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow, after which he was hired by NASA as a research scientist.
Dr. Bleacher’s research focuses on understanding the volcanic history of the Earth, Moon, and Mars by remote sensing mapping and field work. Upon joining the NASA workforce, he began supporting the Constellation Program Office to conduct studies examining potential landing sites and developing science traverse plans to help define requirements for hardware on the lunar surface. Dr. Bleacher served as a science team member and test subject as a crew member for NASA’s Desert Research and Technology Studies (Desert RATS), which focused on field tests of operations associated with prototype human rovers for the Moon. He has served as the lead for the Goddard Instrument Field Team, in which he organized Goddard’s planetary science field research deployments, as well as Goddard’s Lead Exploration Scientist, for which he worked to create cross-center awareness of ongoing human exploration projects.
Dr. Bleacher is a co-author on a number of peer-reviewed science publications, including a cover article for the journal Nature focused on explosive volcanism on Mars, as well as the chapter on Mars volcanism in the Encyclopedia of Volcanoes, 2nd edition. He has served on a series of Special Action Teams for the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group and Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group, including the Lunar Sample Acquisition and Curation Review, Candidate Scientific Objectives for the Human Exploration of Mars, and Geological Astronaut Training, and has served on NASA’s In-Situ Resource Utilization Systems Capability Leadership Team. He applies a strong interest in both scientific research and human exploration to his current role at NASA Headquarters.