RSA’s Brilliant Minds: Nick Hobar
- Rhea Space Activity
- Jun 24
- 5 min read
“Houston, we have a problem,” is not usually a phrase you want to hear when working with spaceships. But to Nick Hobar - an avid rock climber and boulderer with an affinity for metal, Dungeons & Dragons, and wide-brim baseball caps - it’s a challenge to strap in, solve a puzzle, and defy gravity.
As a Spacecraft Systems Engineer with Rhea Space Activity (RSA), Nick is responsible for integration, risk analysis, testing, and mission planning for the Jervis Autonomy Module (or JAM). Experienced in software systems, spacecraft assembly, and fault management, he knows exactly how to adapt RSA’s autonomous navigation technology to new mission environments.
So, how did he make a dyno-sized leap into the world of aerospace engineering?
One Small Step
Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, Nick moved to Italy and France as a kid due to his parents’ jobs. By the time he landed back in Indianapolis at the age of 7, it was the early 2000s and space was the place to be. The Space Shuttle Discovery had successfully completed one of the first space station assembly missions, and a grade school project would further cement his love of science and engineering.
“The Cassini Spacecraft… I had to do a little presentation in the 3rd grade. I chose that, and it just totally stuck. I knew that this is what I wanted to do.”
As he progressed through middle and high school, Nick found himself moving away from strict sciences like chemistry and physics and into engineering. “I wanted to be the person that makes it happen. The science is great… but I wanted to be the person that makes the science possible. I wanted to build the thing.”
Nick would go on to study Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering at Purdue University. Getting the degree was hard work. By his senior year - a time he describes as the “hardest semester of his life” - he was in full systems design mode, taking graduate-level courses, and maintaining the top GPA in the program. While difficult, his time at Purdue put him in the orbit of one of the heaviest hitters in space science.
Enter Dr. Buzz Aldrin, who served as the team lead on Nick’s senior project to design a lunar base for long-term human habitation. Sharp as a tack and having recently authored a book on human missions to Mars, Dr. Aldrin was able to provide detailed guidance based on his real-world mission experience and PhD in orbital dynamics.
After conquering the overhang of getting a college degree, Nick was feeling a bit of a hangover from the world of academia. But what does a young college graduate do to be free and go solo?
Free Solo
Rock. Climbing. Now enjoying his time being “a young person without responsibilities,” Nick traveled to various rock climbing hot spots. Besides locations in Illinois and Kentucky, he also visited New River Gorge in West Virginia, and Moab and Indian Creek in Utah. He even undertook a big expedition to Mexico’s highest peak (and active volcano), Citlaltépetl - otherwise known as Pico de Orizaba.
During this time, his favorite place was Kentucky’s Red River Gorge. Close to Indianapolis and centrally located in the US’s Midwest region, Red River Gorge’s sandstone cliffs boast a diverse set of climbing routes. The area is known as a mecca for climbing enthusiasts. “Every few weeks we’d be going there, staying at Miguel’s Pizza. All the weird characters there and the climbing you can do make it an awesome place.”
After a few years spent weightless hanging off the side of cliffs, Nick decided it was time to once again strap a booster rocket to his career and plot a trajectory back into engineering. Said rocket was a Master's Certification in Satellite Systems Design at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Arriving in the city without a job, by the time he’d finished at CU Boulder he was quickly hooked by Blue Canyon Technologies to work as a systems engineer.
Liftoff
Nick’s time at Blue Canyon pushed his skills to the limit and drew his engineering expertise into a steep ascent. He had to reteach himself complex processes like thermodynamics and learn entirely new techniques, including coding in C and Matlab.
Working at the crossroads of science and engineering, he quickly learned how to communicate with technical staff and translate their language into layman's terms for program managers. "Systems engineers must become temporary experts in everything to engage with and gather information from various specialists," said Nick, reflecting on one of the most valuable lessons he’s learned to date.
During his time with previous companies, he also had the chance to work on two high-profile projects. The first was creating microsatellites with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the Investigation of Collective Updrafts (INCUS) mission - which will collect radar and microwave measurements from inside thunderstorms when they launch in 2027.
The second was Canada’s Quantum Encryption and Science Satellite (QEYSSat) project, which, when launched in 2026, will attempt to perform quantum key distribution from space (QKD). Similar to RSA’s QLOAK technology - which has been outfitted on ground stations - QKD technologies encrypt and decrypt data using the quantum entanglement of two particles, creating more secure transmissions than current data-comms methods.
In Orbit
Now firmly rooted at RSA, Nick is continuing to “build the thing”—pushing the boundaries of navigation as he helps expand the applications of RSA’s celestial-based guidance systems. One of the projects that excites him most? Collaborating with Dr. Christopher Grasso to modernize AutoNav, the software backbone of RSA’s JAM system.
Originally written by Dr. Grasso in the 1990s, AutoNav—along with its companion system, Virtual Machine Language (VML)—powered major NASA missions like Deep Impact and the Spitzer Space Telescope. Today, Nick is breathing new life into that legacy, testing and rewriting code that’s over 30 years old, bringing it up to modern NASA standards, and preparing it for a return voyage into deep space.
When he’s not managing lines of code, Nick is still navigating cliffs—scaling the boulders of Flagstaff, Boulder Canyon, and Guanella Pass, which he proudly calls home to the “best bouldering in Colorado.”
To Nick, climbing and engineering are parallel disciplines. Both require precision, patience, and an acceptance that failure is part of the process. With climbing, gravity lets you know when you’ve made a mistake. In engineering, the errors are quieter - but no less real. Even with years of experience, he doesn’t always “flash the route” - climber-speak for nailing it on the first try. But that’s not the goal.
For Nick, the real reward is in the climb itself - and the view from the top. “Seeing something you’ve worked on move from an idea on paper to an actual physical system, something that might one day fly through space - that’s what really excites me,” he says.
Whether laboring in the lab or clinging to a cliff face, Nick is always chasing that summit moment and looking to “top out.” The only question that remains is: how’s he getting back down?
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